UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT 
THE  CITIZEN 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

THE  MAKING  OF  AN  AMERICAN 
THE  BATTLE  WITH  THE   SLUM 
CHILDREN  OF  THE  TENEMENTS 


THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT 
THE  CITIZEN 


2.3^/3 

JACOB  "A.  mis 

AUTHOR  OP  "THE  MAKING  OP  AN  AMERICAN' 
"HOW  THB  OTHER  HAW  LIVES,"  BTC. 


NEW  YORK 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1912 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYMGHT  1903,  BY  THE  OUTLOOK  COMPAWY 
COPYRIGHT  1904,   BY  THE  OUTLOOK  COMPANY 
PUBLISHED  MARCH,    1904 
REPRINTED  MARCH,    1904 
SPECIAL  EDITION  JUNE,    1904 
REPRINTED    JANUARY,     1907 
REPRINTED    MAY,     1907 
REPRINTED    MARCH,     19!  2 


Nortooob  \9rnz : 
Berwick  &  Smith  Co.,  Norwood,  Mais.,  U.S.A. 


To  the  Young  Men 
of  America 


CONTENTS 

y  PAOB 

I.  Boyhood  Ideals 1 

II.  What  He  Got  Out  of  College      .  20 
in.      Early  Lessons  in  Politics        .       .  45 
iv.       The  Horse  and  the   Gun   Have 

Their  Day 71 

v.         The  Fair  Play  Department    .       .  97 
vi.       In  Mulberry  Street    .       .       .       .127 

vn.      The  Clash  of  War     ....  155 
vin.    Roosevelt  and  His  Men   .       .       .177 

ix.       Ruling  by  the  Ten  Commandments  201 

x.        The  Summons  on  Mount  Marcy   .  231 

Xi.       What  He  Is  Like  Himself     .       .  251 

xn.     The  Despair  of  Politicians      .       .  279 

xin.    At  Home  and  at  Play      .       .       .  30JL, 

xiv.     Children  Trust  Him  ....  339 

xv.      The  President's  Policies    .       .       .  363 

xvi.     A  Young  Men's  Hero      .       .       .  393 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


xvii.  Roosevelt  as  a  Speaker  and  Writer    411 
xvin.  Theodore  Roosevelt's  Father  .  431 


The  Roosevelt  Chronology  .  .  451 
Books  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  .  455 
Index  .  .  465 


Nl 


I 

BOYHOOD  IDEALS 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

2.3  2L>  a 

A~  L  summer  I  have  been  fighting  for 
leeway  to  sit  down  and  write  about 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  glad  am  I 
that  I  have  come  to  it  at  last.  For  there  is  no- 
thing I  know  of  that  I  would  rather.  But  let  us 
have  a  clear  understanding  about  it.  I  am  not 
going  to  write  a  "  life  "  of  him.  I  have  seen  it 
said  in  print  that  that  was  my  intention.  Well, 
it  was.  That  was  the  shape  it  took  in  my  mind 
at  the  start ;  but  not  for  long.  Perhaps  one  of 
the  kindest  things  the  years  do  for  us  as  they 
pass  is  to  show  us  what  things  we  can  not  do. 
In  that  way  they  have  been  very  kind  to  me. 
When  I  was  twenty,  there  was  nothing  I  could 
not  do.  Now  I  am  glad  that  there  are  stronger 
and  fitter  hands  than  mine  to  do  many  things 
I  had  set  my  heart  on.  They  must  do  this,  then. 
[3] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

And,  besides,  it  is  both  too  early  and  too  late 
for  a  life  of  Theodore  Roosevelt.  Too  late 
for  the  mere  formal  details  of  his  career ;  every- 
body knows  them.  Much  too  early  to  tell  the 
whole  story  of  what  that  strong,  brave  life  will 
mean  to  the  American  people,  his  people  of 
whom  he  is  so  proud,  when  the  story  is  all  told. 
No  one  can  know  him  and  believe  in  the  people 
without  feeling  sure  of  that. 

There  remains  to  me  to  speak  of  him  as  the 
friend,  the  man.  And  this  is  what  I  shall  do, 
the  more  gladly  because  so  may  it  be  my  privi- 
lege to  introduce  him  to  some  who  know  him 
only  as  the  public  man,  the  President,  the  par- 
tisan perhaps— and  a  very  energetic  partisan 
he  is — and  so  really  do  not  know  him  at  all,  in 
the  sense  which  I  have  in  mind.  The  public 
man  I  will  follow  because  he  is  square,  and 
will  do  the  square  thing  always,  not  merely 
want  to  do  it.  With  the  partisan  I  will  some- 
times disagree,  at  least  I  ought  to,  for  I  was 
before  a  Democrat  and  would  be  one  now  if 
the  party  would  get  some  sense  and  bar  Tam- 
many out  in  the  cold  for  its  monstrous  wicked- 
ness.1! ®^  *ke  President  I  am  proud  with  rea- 

1 1  am  hound  to  say  that  I  see  no  signs  of  it,  and  also  that  I  am 
rather  relieved,  with  Roosevelt  to  run  in  another  year. 
[4] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

son,  but  the  friend  I  love.  And  if  I  can  make 
you  see  him  so,  as  a  friend  and  a  man,  I  have 
given  you  the  master-key  to  him  as  a  statesman 
as  well.  You  will  never  need  to  ask  any  ques- 
tions. 

For  still  another  reason  I  am  glad  that  it 
is  to  be  so:  I  shall  be  speaking  largely  to  the 
young  whose  splendid  knight  he  is,  himself  yet 
a  young  man  filled  with  the  high  courage  and 
brave  ideals  that  make  youth  the  golden  age 
of  the  great  deeds  forever.  And  I  want  to  show 
them  the  man  Roosevelt,  who  through  many  a 
fight  in  which  hard  blows  were  dealt  never  once 
proved  unfaithful  to  them;  who,  going  forth 
with  a  young  man's  resolve  to  try  to  "  make 
things  better  in  this  world,  even  a  little  better, 
because  he  had  lived  in  it,"  l  through  fair  days 
and  foul,  through  good  report  and  evil  (and  of 
this  last  there  was  never  a  lack),  sounded  his 
battle-cry,  "  Better  faithful  than  famous,"-  and 
won.  A  hundred  times  the  mercenaries  and 
the  spoilsmen  whom  he  fought  had  him  down 
and  "  ruined  "  in  the  fight.  At  this  moment, 
as  I  write,  they  are  rubbing  their  hands  with 
glee  because  at  last  he  has  undone  himself, 

1  His  speech  to  the  Long  Island  Bible  Society,  June  11,  1901. 
[5] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

by  bidding  organized  labor  halt  where  it  was 
wrong.  Last  winter,  when  it  was  right,  he 
"  killed  himself  "  when  he  made  capital  stop 
and  think.  They  were  false  prophets  then  as 
they  are  now.  Nothing  can  ruin  Theodore 
Roosevelt  except  his  proving  unfaithful  to  his 
own  life,  and  that  he  will  never  do.  /  If  I  know 
anything  of  him,  I  know  this,  that  he  would 
rather  be  right  than  be  President  any  day,  and 
that  he  will  never  hesitate  in  his  choice.  \ 

That  is  the  man  I  would  show  to  our  young 
people  just  coming  into  their  birthright,  and 
I  can  think  of  no  better  service  I  could  render 
them.  For  the  lying  sneers  are  thick  all  about 
in  a  world  that  too  often  rates  success  as  "  what 
you  can  make."  And  yet  is  its  heart  sound; 
for  when  the  appeal  is  made  to  it  in  simple  faith 
for  the  homely  virtues,  for  the  sturdy  man- 
hood, it  is  never  made  in  vain.  This  is  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's  message  to  his  day,  that  honor 
goes  before  profit,  that  the  moral  is  greater 
than  the  material,  that  men  are  to  be  trusted 
if  you  believe  in  the  good  in  them ;  and  though 
it  is  an  old  story,  there  is  none  greater.  At 
least  there  is  none  we  have  more  need  of  learn- 
ing, since  the  world  is  ours,  such  as  it  is,  to  fit 
16] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

for  the  kingdom  that  is  to  come,  and  nowhere 
is  there  another  plan  provided  for  doing  it. 

So,  then,  it  is  understood  that  I  am  absolved 
from  routine,  from  chronology,  and  from  sta- 
tistics in  writing  this  story.  I  am  to  have  full 
leave  to  "  put  things  in  as  I  think  of  them," 
as  the  critics  of  my  books  say  I  do  anyhow. 
A  more  absurd  charge  was  never  made  against 
any  one,  it  has  always  seemed  to  me ;  for  how 
can  a  man  put  things  in  when  he  does  n't  think 
of  them?  I  am  just  to  write  about  Theodore 
Roosevelt  as  I  know  him,  of  my  own  know- 
ledge or  through  those  nearest  and  dearest  to 
him.  And  the  responsibility  will  be  mine  alto- 
gether. I  am  not  going  to  consult  him,  even  if 
he  is  the  President  of  the  United  States.  For 
one  thing,  because,  the  only  time  I  ever  did, 
awed  by  his  office,  he  sent  the  copy  back  unread 
with  the  message  that  he  would  read  it  in  print. 
So,  if  anything  goes  wrong,  blame  me  and  me 
only. 

And  now,  when  I  cast  around  for  a  starting- 
point,  there  rises  up  before  me  the  picture  of  a 
little  lad,  in  stiff  white  petticoats,  with  a  curl 
right  on  top  of  his  head,  toiling  laboriously 
along  with  a  big  fat  volume  under  his  arm, 

[7] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"  David  Livingstone's  Travels  and  Researches 
in  South  Africa,"  and  demanding  of  every 
member  of  the  family  to  be  told  what  were 
"  the  foraging  ants  "  and  what  they  did.  It 
was  his  sister,  now  Mrs.  Cowles,  who  at  last 
sat  down  in  exasperation  to  investigate,  that 
the  business  of  the  household  might  have  a 
chance  to  proceed,  for  baby  Theodore  held  it 
up  mercilessly  until  his  thirst  for  information 
was  slaked.  Whereupon  it  developed  that  the 
supposedly  grim  warriors  of  the  ant-hill  were 
really  a  blameless  tribe — "  the  foregoing  ants  " 
in  fact.  We  are  none  of  us  infallible.  The 
"  foraging  ants  "  are  a  comfort  to  me  when 
their  discoverer  is  disposed  to  laugh  at  my 
ee-v.ee  lamb  that  but  for  my  foreign  speech 
should  have  been  a  plain  ewe.  But,  then,  I 
dwelt  content  in  the  bliss  of  ignorance.  He, 
explorer  in  baby  petticoats,  could  not  be  ap- 
peased till  he  found  out. 

I  suppose  they  called  him  Ted  in  those  days. 
In  my  own  time  I  have  never  found  any  one 
to  do  it  who  knew  him,  and  the  better  they 
knew  him  the  less  liable  were  they  to.  You  can 
tell  for  a  certainty  that  a  man  does  not  know 
him  when  he  speaks  of  him  as  "  Teddy."  Not 

[8] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

that  he  frowns  upon  it ;  I  do  not  believe  that  he 
has  often  had  the  chance.  But,  somehow,  there 
is  no  temptation  to  that  kind  of  familiarity, 
which  does  not  imply  any  less  affection,  but 
just  the  reverse.  He  may  call  me  Jake  and  I 
like  nothing  better.  But  though  I  am  ten  years 
older  than  he,  he  was  always  Mr.  Roosevelt 
with  me. '  His  rough-riders  might  sing  of  him 
as  Teddy,  but  to  his  face  they  called  him  Colo- 
nel, with  the  mixture  of  affection  and  respect 
that  makes  troopers  go  to  death  as  to  a  dance 
in  the  steps  of  a  leader.  The  Western  plains- 
men quickly  forgot  the  tenderfoot  in  the  man 
who  could  shoot  and  ride  though  he  came  out  of 
the  East  and  wore  eye-glasses,  and  who  never 
bragged  or  bullied  but  knew  his  rights  and 
dared  maintain  them.  He  wTas  Mister  Roose- 
velt there  from  the  second  day  on  the  ranch. 
But  in  those  old  days  at  home  he  was  Ted  with 
the  boys,  no  doubt.  For  he  was  a  whole  boy 
and  got  out  of  it  all  that  was  going,  after  he 
got  it  going.  He  has  told  me  that  it  took 
some  time,  that  as  a  little  fellow  he  was  timid, 
and  that  when  bigger  boys  came  along  and 
bullied  him  he  did  not  know  what  to  do 
about  it.  I  have  a  notion  that  he  quickly 

[9] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

found  out  and  that  they  did  not  come  back 

often. 

.     A  woman  who  lived  next  door  to  the  Roose- 

velts  in  East  Twentieth  Street  told  me  of  how, 

passing  in  the  street,  she  saw  young  Theodore 

hanging  out  of  a  second-story  window  and  ran 

in  to  tell  his  mother. 

"  If  the  Lord,"  said  she,  as  she  made  off  to 
catch  him,  "  had  not  taken  care  of  Theodore, 
he  would  have  been  killed  long  ago." 

In  after  years  the  Governor  of  New  York 
told  me,  with  a  reminiscent  gleam  in  his  eye, 
how  his  boy,  the  third  Theodore  in  line,  had 
"  swarmed  down  "  the  leader  of  the  Executive 
Mansion  to  go  and  hear  the  election  returns, 
rather  than  go  out  through  the  door.  There 
was  no  frightened  neighbor  to  betray  his  ex- 
ploit then,  for  it  was  dark,  which  made  it  all 
the  more  exciting.  It  was  the  Governor  him- 
self who  caught  him.  The  evidence  is,  I  think, 
that  the  Theodores  were  cut  out  pretty  much 
on  the  same  pattern. 

Of  that  happy  childhood's  home,  with  the 
beautiful  mother  of  blessed  memory  and  the 
father  who  rode  and  played  with  the  children, 
and  was  that,  alas!  rarest  of  parents,  their 

[10] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

chum  and  companion  as  well  as  their  just 
judge  when  occasion  demanded,  I  have  caught 
many  a  glimpse  I  wish  I  might  reveal  here, 
but  that  shaU  be  theirs  to  keep.  The  family 
romps  at  home,  the  strolls  on  forest  paths 
which  their  father  taught  them  early  to 
love;  their  gleeful  dashes  on  horseback,  he 
watchfully  leading  on,  the  children  scampering 
after,  a  merry  crew;  of  how  at  his  stern  sum- 
mons to  breakfast,  "  Children!  "  they  one  and 
all  fell  downstairs  together  in  their  haste  to  be 
there,  they  speak  yet  with  a  tenderness  of  love 
that  discloses  the  rarely  strong  and  beautiful 
soul  that  was  his.  It  was  only  the  other  day 
that,  speaking  with  an  old  employee  of  the 
Children's  Aid  Society,  of  which  the  elder  \ 
Roosevelt  was  a  strong  prop,  I  learned  from  \ 
him  how  deep  was  the  impression  made  by  his  \ 
gentle  courtesy  toward  his  wife  when  he 
brought  her  to  the  lodging-house  on  his  visits. 
\*  To  see  him  put  on  her  wraps  and  escort  her 
from  room  to  room  was  beautiful,"  he  said.' 
"  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  never  knew  till  then 
what  the  word  gentleman  meant."  How  little 
we,  any  of  us,  know  what  our  example  may 
mean  for  good  or  for  ill!  Here,  after  thirty 
[ii] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

years,  the  recollection  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  sim- 
ple courtesy  was  a  potent  force  in  one  man's 
life. 

With  such  ties  of  love  binding  the  home 
together,  the  whirlwind  of  anger  and  passion 
that  swept  over  the  country  in  the  years  of  the 
war  had  no  power  to  break  or  to  embitter, 
even  though  the  mother  was  of  the  South,  with 
roots  that  held,  while  his  life  and  work  were 
given  to  the  Union  cause  as  few  men's  were. 
Rather,  it  laid  the  foundations  broad  and 
deep  of  that  abiding  Americanism  that  is  to- 
day Theodore  Roosevelt's  most  distinguishing 
trait.  It  is  no  empty  speech  of  his  that  caresses 
the  thought  of  the  men  who  wore  the  blue  and 
those  who  wore  the  gray  standing  at  last  shoul- 
der to  shoulder.,  It  was  an  uncle  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt  who  built  the  privateer  Alabama,, 
and  another  uncle,  Irwin  S.  Bulloch,  who  fired 
the  last  gun  aboard  her  when  she  went  down 
before  the  fire  of  the  Kearsarge,  shifting  it 
from  one  side  of  the  ship  to  the  other  as  she 
sank,  to  let  it  have  the  last  word.  The  while  at 
home  his  father  raised  and  equipped  regiments 
and  sent  them  to  the  war,  saw  to  it  that  they 
were  fed  and  cared  for  and  that  those  they  left 

[12] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

behind  did  not  suffer.  I  have  never  been  able 
to  make  up  my  mind  which  was  most  like  the 
Theodore  of  to-day.  I  guess  they  both  were. 
I  know  that  as  he  grew,  the  devotion  of  the 
one,  the  daring  of  the  other,  took  hold  of  his 
soul  and  together  were  welded  into  the  man, 
the  patriot,  to  whom  love  of  country  is  as  a 
living  fire,  as  the  very  heart's  blood  of  his 
being. 

For  play  there  was  room  in  plenty  in  the 
home  in  which  Theodore  grew  up ;  for  idleness 
none.  His  father,  though  not  rich  in  the  sense 
of  to-day,  had  money  enough  to  enable  them 
all  to  live  without  working  if  they  so  chose. 
That  they  should  not  so  choose  was  the  constant 
aim  and  care  of  his  existence.  In  his  scheme 
of  life  the  one  man  for  whom  there  was  no 
room  was  the  useless  drone.  Whether  he 
needed  it  or  not,  every  man  must  do  some  hon- 
est, decent  work,  and  do  it  with  his  might :  the 
community  had  a  right  to  it.  We  catch  echoes 
of  this  inheritance  in  his  son's  writings  from 
the  very  beginning,  and  as  the  years  pass  they 
ring  out  more  clearly.  I  remember  his  inter- 
view with  Julian  Ralph,  when  as  a  Police  Com- 
missioner he  was  stirring  New  York  up  as  it 

[13] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

had  not  been  stirred  in  many  a  long  day.  I  can 
see  him  now  striding  up  and  down  the  bare 
gray  office. 

"  What  would  you  say  to  the  young  men 
of  our  city,  if  you  could  speak  to  them  with 
command  this  day?  "  asked  Mr.  Ralph. 

"  I  would  order  them  to  work,"  said  Mr. 
Roosevelt,  stopping  short  and  striking  his 
hands  together  with  quick  emphasis.  "  I  would 
teach  the  young  men  that  he  who  has  not 
wealth  owes  his  first  duty  to  his  family,  but 
he  who  has  means  owes  his  to  the  State.  It 
is  ignoble  to  go  on  heaping  money  on  money. 
I  would  preach  the  doctrine  of  work  to  all,  and 
to  the  men  of  wealth  the  doctrine  of  unre- 
munerative  work." 

It  was  hardly  unremunerative  work  that  first 
enlisted  young  Theodore's  energies.  Looking 
at  him  now,  I  should  think  that  nothing  ever 
paid  a  better  interest  on  the  investment.  He 
was  not  a  strong  child — from  earliest  infancy 
liable  to  asthmatic  attacks  that  sapped  his  vi- 
tality and  kept  back  his  growth.  Probably 
that  accounts  for  the  temporary  indecision  in 
the  matter  of  bullies  which  he  remembers.  But 
in  the  frail  body  there  lived  an  indomitable 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

spirit  before  which  had  risen  already  visions 
of  a  man  with  a  horse  and  a  gun,  of  travel  and 
adventure.  Mayne  Reid's  books  had  found 
their  way  to  East  Twentieth  Street,  and  they 
went  with  the  lad  wherever  the  family  tent  was 
pitched  to  ease  the  little  sufferer.  One  winter 
they  spent  in  Egypt,  floating  down  the  Nile 
amid  the  ruins  of  empires  dead  and  gone.  But 
the  past  and  its  dead  got  no  grip  on  the  young 
American.  He  longed  to  go  back  to  his  own 
country  of  the  mighty  forests  and  the  swelling 
plains  where  men  worked  out  their  own  destiny. 
He  would  be  a  pathfinder,  a  hunter.  But  a 
hunter  has  need  of  strong  thews;  of  a  sound 
body.  And  to  become  strong  became  presently 
the  business  of  his  life. 

It  was  one  of  the  things  that  early  attracted 
me  to  Theodore  Roosevelt,  long  before  he  had 
become  famous,  that  he  was  a  believer  in  the 
gospel  of  will.  Nothing  is  more  certain,  hu- 
manly speaking,  than  this,  that  what  a  man 
wills  himself  to  be,  that  he  will  be.  Is  he  will- 
ing to  put  in  all  on  getting  rich,  rich  he  will  get, 
to  find  his  riches  turning  to  ashes  in  his  dead 
hand;  will  he  have  power,  knowledge,  strength 
—they  are  all  within  his  grasp.  The  question 

[IS] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

for  him  to  decide  is  whether  they  are  worth  giv- 
ing up  a  life  to,  and,  having  decided,  to  give 
it  to  his  ambition.  The  boy  Theodore  saw  that 
to  do  anything  he  must  first  be  strong,  and 
chose  that.  There  were  many  things  he  might 
have  chosen  which  would  have  been  easier,  but 
if  you  are  concerned  about  that,  you  will  not 
have  your  way.  He  was  not.  He  set  about 
resolutely  removing  the  reproach  of  his  puny 
body,  as  it  seemed  to  him.  He  ran,  he  rode,  he 
swam,  he  roamed  through  the  hills  of  his  Long 
Island  home,  the  same  to  which  he  yet  comes 
back  to  romp  with  his  children  on  his  summer 
holiday.  He  rowed  his  skiff  intrepidly  over 
the  white-capped  waters  of  the  Bay — that  once, 
when  I  had  long  been  a  man,  carried  mine,  de- 
spite all  my  struggles,  across  to  Center  Island 
and  threw  me,  skiff  and  all,  upon  the  beach, 
a  shipwrecked  mariner  doomed  to  be  ignomini- 
ously  ferried  across  on  the  yacht  club's  launch. 
I  thought  of  it  the  other  day  when  I  came 
ashore  from  the  Sylph,  and  half  a  mile  from 
shore  met  young  Kermit  battling  alone  with 
the  waves,  hatless  and  with  the  salt  spray  in 
his  eyes  and  hair,  tossed  here  and  there  as  in  a 
nutshell,  but  laughing  and  undaunted.  I  do 

[16] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

not  know  where  he  was  going.  I  doubt  if  he 
did.  His  father  and  mother  were  ashore  and 
on  their  way  home.  He  was  just  having  it  out 
and  having  a  good  time.  It  was  his  father  over 
again,  and  we  cheered  him  on  and  let  him  go. 
1  don't  suppose  we  could  have  stopped  him  had 
we  tried. 

x 

/^ No  more  could  you  have  stopped  Theodore 
in  his  day.  What  he  did  he  did  with  the  will 
to  win,  yet  never  as  a  task.  He  got  no  end  of 
fun  out  of  it,  or  it  would  have  been  of  little  use, 
and  one  secret  of  that  was  that  he  made  what 
he  did  serve  an  end  useful  in  itself.  On  his 
tramps  through  the  woods  he  studied  and  clas- 
sified the  neighborhood  birds.  He  knew  their 
song,  their  plumage,  and  their  nests.  So  he 
learned  something  he  wanted  to  know,  and 
cultivated  the  habits  of  study,  of  concentration, 
at  the  time  when  all  boys  are  impatient  of  these 
things  and  most  of  them  shirk  them  when  they 
can,  leaving  every  task  unfinished.  And  all, 
as  I  said,  along  of  a  healthy,  outdoor,  romping 
life.  The  reward  of  that  was  not  long  in  com- 
ing. Presently  strong  muscles  knit  themselves 
about  his  bones,  the  frail  frame  broadened  and 
grew  tough.  The  boy  held  his  own  with  his 

[17] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fellows.  He  passed  them,  and  now  he  led  in 
their  games.  The  horse  was  his;  the  gun 
loomed  in  the  prospect.  College  was  at  hand, 
and  then— life.  The  buffaloes  yet  roamed 
the  plains.  One  might  unite  the  calling  of  a 
naturalist,  a  professor,  with  the  interest  of  a 
hunter.  So  ran  his  dreams.  It  is  the  story 
of  one  American  boy  who  won  against  odds, 
and  though  he  did  not  become  professor  he  be- 
came President;  and  it  is  a  good  story  for 
all  American  boys  to  read.  For  they  can  do 
the  same,  if  they  choose  to.  And  if  they  do 
not  all  become  Presidents,  they  can  all  be  right, 
and  so  be  like  him  in  that  which  is  better  still. 
I  said  he  had  his  dreams.  Every  boy  has, 
and  if  he  does  not  stop  at  that,  it  is  good  for 
him.  Into  young  Theodore's  there  had  come 
a  new  element  that  spoke  loudly  for  the  plains, 
for  the  great  West.  The  Leatherstocking 
stories  had  been  added  to  his  reading.  It  was 
with  something  of  fear  almost  that  I  asked 
him  once  if  he  liked  them.  For  I  loved  them. 
I  had  lived  them  all  in  my  Danish  home.  They 
first  set  my  eyes  toward  the  west,  and  in  later 
years,  when  I  have  heard  it  said,  and  read  in 
reviews  that  Cooper  is  out  of  date;  that  he 

[18] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

never  was  a  first-class  writer,  I  have  felt  it 
as  a  personal  injury  and  as  if  something  had 
come  between  me  and  the  day  that  cannot  love 
Natty  Bumppo  and  Uncas  and  Mabel  Dun- 
ham. And  so  I  say  it  was  with  a  real  pang 
that  I  asked  him  if  he  did  not  also  like  them. 

He  whirled  round  with  kindling  eyes. 

"  Like  them,"  he  cried,  "  like  them!  Why, 
man,  there  is  nothing  like  them.  I  could  pass 
examination  in  the  whole  of  them  to-day. 
Deerslayer  with  his  long  rifle,  Jasper  and 
Hurry  Harry,  Ishmael  Bush  with  his  seven 
stalwart  sons — do  I  not  know  them?  I  have 
bunked  with  them  and  eaten  with  them,  and  I 
know  their  strength  and  their  weakness.  They 
were  narrow  and  hard,  but  they  were  mighty 
men  and  they  did  the  work  of  their  day  and 
opened  the  way  for  ours.  Do  I  like  them? 
Cooper  is  unique  in  American  literature,  and 
he  will  grow  upon  us  as  we  get  farther  away 
from  his  day,  let  the  critics  say  what  they  will." 
And  I  was  made  happy. 

Afterward  I  remembered  with  sudden  ap- 
prehension that  he  had  spoken  only  of  the  white 
men  in  the  books,  for  it  came  to  me  that  he  had 
lived  in  the  West,  where  the  only  good  Indian  is 

[19] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

esteemed  to  be  the  dead  Indian.  But  it  was 
needless  treachery  of  my  thought.  The  red 
man  has  no  better  friend  than  the  Great  White 
Father  of  to-day,  none  who  burns  with  hotter 
indignation  at  the  shame  our  dealings  with  him 
have  brought  upon  the  American  name.  Un- 
cas  and  Chingachgook,  beloved  friends  of  my 
boyhood,  were  safe  with  him. 

I  have  told  you  of  Theodore  Roosevelt's  boy- 
hood as  from  time  to  time  I  have  gathered 
glimpses  of  it  from  himself  and  from  his  sis- 
ter, and  as  I  like  to  think  of  it.  I  did  not  meet 
him  till  long  after  both  horse  and  gun  had  be- 
come living  realities.  When  he  was  drifting 
and  dreaming  on  the  Nile  I  was  sailing  across 
the  Atlantic  to  have  my  first  tussle  with  the 
slum  which  in  after  years  we  fought  together. 
And  now  you  know  one  reason  why  I  love  him: 
it  was  when  that  same  strong  will,  that  honest 
endeavor,  that  resolute  purpose  to  see  right  and 
justice  done  to  his  poorer  brothers — it  was 
when  they  joined  in  the  battle  with  the  slum 
that  all  my  dreams  came  true,  all  my  ideals  be- 
came real.  Why  should  I  not  love  him? 

The  boy  had  grown  into  a  man.  Since  I 
have  here  spoken  to  the  boys  of  his  country 

[20] 


BOYHOOD  IDEALS 

and,  thank  God,  of  mine,  let  him  speak  now, 
and  judge  yourself  how  performance  has 
squared  with  promise,  practice  with  preaching : 

"  Of  course  what  we  have  a  right  to  expect 
of  the  American  boy  is  that  he  shall  turn  out  to 
be  a  good  American  man.  Now,  the  chances 
are  strong  that  he  won't  be  much  of  a  man  un- 
less he  is  a  good  deal  of  a  boy.  He  must  not 
be  a  coward  or  a  weakling,  a  bully,  a  shirk,  or 
a  prig.  He  must  work  hard  and  play  hard. 
He  must  be  clean -minded  and  olean-lived,  and 
able  to  hold  his  own  under  all  circumstances 
and  against  all  comers.  It  is  only  on  these  con- 
ditions that  he  will  grow  into  the  k'nd  of  a 
man  of  whom  America  can  really  be  proud. 

"  In  life,  as  in  a  football  game,  the  principle 
to  follow  is:  Hit  the  line  hard;  don't  foul  and 
don't  shirk,  but  hit  the  line  hard." 


[31] 


II 

WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF 
COLLEGE 


II 

WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

RVTHER  a  delicate-looking  young  fel- 
low yet,  not  over  a  hundred  and 
thirty  pounds  on  the  scales,  slender  of 
frame  and  slim  of  waist,  was  the  Theodore 
Roosevelt  who  made  his  entry  into  Harvard 
while  the  country  yet  rang  with  the  echoes  of 
the  Electoral  Commission  and  of  the  destruc- 
tive railroad  riots  of  the  summer  that  followed. 
They  were  troublous  times  to  begin  life  in,  and 
one  would  naturally  think  that  they  would 
leave  their  mark  upon  a  spirit  like  Roosevelt's. 
I  know  that  they  did,  but  the  evidence  of  it 
does  not  lie  on  the  surface.  Neither  in  the 
memory  of  his  classmates  nor  in  his  record  as 
an  editor  of  the  "  Advocate  "  is  there  anything 
to  suggest  it.  I  was  in  Pennsylvania  during 
those  riots,  when  militiamen  were  burned  like 

[25] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

rats  in  a  railroad  round-house.  I  saw  what 
they  meant,  and  I  have  no  difficulty  in  making 
out  their  stamp  upon  his  ardent  spirit  when  I 
read  such  comments  as  this  on  the  draft  riots 
in  his  history  of  New  York,  though  written 
more  than  a  dozen  years  after : 

"  The  troops  and  police  were  thoroughly 
armed,  and  attacked  the  rioters  with  the  most 
wholesome  desire  to  do  them  harm;  ...  a 
lesson  was  inflicted  on  the  lawless  and  disor- 
derly which  they  never  entirely  forgot.  Two 
millions  of  property  had  been  destroyed  and 
many  valuable  lives  lost.  But  over  twelve  hun- 
dred rioters  were  slain— an  admirable  object- 
lesson  to  the  remainder." 

Perhaps  they  had  more  to  do  with  shaping 
his  later  career,  those  cruel  riots,  than  even  he 
has  realized,  for  I  should  not  be  surprised  if, 
unconsciously,  he  acted  upon  their  motion  in 
joining  the  militia  in  his  own  State,  and  so 
got  the  first  grip  upon  the  soldiering  that  stood 
him  in  such  good  stead  in  Cuba.  "  I  wanted," 
he  said  to  me  after  he  had  become  President, 
"  to  count  for  one  in  the  fight  for  order  and  for 
the  Republic,  if  the  crisis  were  to  come.  I 
wanted  to  be  in  a  position  to  take  a  man's  stand 

[26] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

in  such  a  case,  that  was  why."  Counting  for 
one  in  the  place  where  he  stood,  when  that  was 
the  thing  to  do,  then  and  always,  he  has  got  to 
the  place  where  he  counts  for  all  of  us,  should 
such  days  come  back,  as  please  God  they  will 
not;  and  nowhere,  I  think,  in  the  land  is  there 
any  one  who  doubts  that  "  order  and  the  Re- 
public "  are  safe  in  his  hands. 

But  in  his  youthful  mind  these  things  were 
working  yet,  unidentified.  His  was  a  healthy 
nature  without  morbid  corners.  The  business 
of  his  boyhood  had  been  to  make  himself  strong 
that  he  might  do  the  work  of  a  man,  by  which 
he  had  in  mind  chiefly,  no  doubt,  the  horse  and 
the  gun — the  bully,  perhaps,  whom  he  had  not 
forgotten — but  the  hunt,  the  life  in  the  open. 
Now,  among  his  fellows,  it  was  to  get  the  most 
out  of  what  their  companionship  offered.  He 
became  instantly  a  favorite  with  his  class  of  a 
hundred  and  seventy-odd.  They  laughed  at 
his  oddities,  at  his  unrepressed  enthusiasm,  at 
his  liking  for  Elizabethan  poetry,  voted  him 
"  more  or  less  crazy  "  with  true  Harvard  con- 
servatism, respected  him  highly  for  his  scholar- 
ship on  the  same  solid  ground,  and  fell  in  even 
with  his  notions  for  his  own  sake,  as  afterward 

[27] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

some  of  them  fell  in  behind  him  in  the  rush 
up  San  Juan  hill,  leaving  lives  of  elegance  and 
ease  to  starve  with  him  in  the  trenches  and  do 
the  chores  of  a  trooper  in  camp  under  a  tropi- 
cal sun.  It  is  remembered  that  Theodore 
Roosevelt  set  Harvard  to  skipping  the  rope, 
a  sport  it  %  had  abandoned  years  before  with 
knickerbockers;  but  it  suited  this  student  to 
keep  up  the  exercise  as  a  means  of  strengthen- 
ing the  leg  muscles,  and  rope-skipping  became 
a  pastime  of  the  class  of  1880.  In  the  gym- 
nasium they  wore  red  stockings  with  their 
practice  suits.  Roosevelt  had  happened  upon 
a  pair  that  were  striped  a  patriotic  red  and 
white,  and  he  wore  them,  at  first  to  the  amaze- 
ment of  the  other  students.  He  did  not  even 
know  that  they  had  attracted  attention,  but 
when  some  one  told  him  he  laughed  and  kept 
them  on.  It  was  what  the  legs  could  do  in  the 
stockings  he  was  there  to  find  out.  Twenty 
years  after  I  heard  a  policeman  call  him  a  dude 
when  he  walked  up  the  steps  of  police  head- 
quarters with  a  silk  sash  about  his  waist,  some- 
thing no  man  had  been  known  to  wear  in  Mul- 
berry Street  in  the  memory  of  the  oldest  there ; 
and  I  saw  the  same  officer  looking  after  him 

[28] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

down  the  street,  as  long  as  he  was  in  sight,  the 
day  he  went,  and  turn  back  with  a  sigh  that 
made  him  my  friend  forever:  "There  won't 
such  another  come  through  that  door  again  in 
my  time,  that  there  won't."  And  there  did  not. 
The  old  man  is  retired  long  since. 

He  joined  the  exclusive  "  Pork  "  Club,  and 
forthwith  smashed  all  its  hallowed  traditions 
and  made  the  Porcellian  blood  run  cold,  by 
taking  his  fiancee  to  lunch  where  no  woman 
ever  trod  before.  He  simply  saw  no  reason 
why  a  lady  should  not  lunch  at  a  gentlemen's 
club;  and  when  the  shocked  bachelor  minds  of 
the  "  Pork  "  Club  searched  the  horizon  for  one 
to  confront  him  with,  they  discovered  that  there 
was  none.  Accordingly  the  world  still  stood, 
and  so  did  the  college.  He  played  polo,  did 
athletic  stunts  with  the  fellows,  and  drove  a 
two-wheeled  gig  badly,  having  no  end  of  good 
times  in  it.  When  he  put  on  the  boxing-gloves, 
he  hailed  the  first  comer  with  the  more  delight 
if  he  happened  to  be  the  champion  of  the  class, 
who  was  twice  his  size  and  heft.  The  pum- 
meling  that  ensued  he  took  with  the  most 
hearty  good  will ;  and  though  his  nose  bled  and 
his  glasses  fell  off,  putting  him  at  a  disadvan- 

[29] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

tage,  he  refused  grimly  to  cry  quarter,  and 
pressed  the  fight  home  in  a  way  that  always 
reminds  me  of  that  redoubtable  Danish  sea- 
fighter,  Peter  Tordenskjold,  who  kept  up  the 
fight,  firing  pewter  dinner-plates  and  mugs 
from  his  one  gun,  when  on  his  little  smack 
there  was  left  but  a  single  man  of  the  crew, 
"  and  he  wept."  Tordenskjold  killed  the  cap- 
tain of  the  Swedish  frigate  with  one  of  his 
mugs  and  got  away.  Roosevelt  was  bested  in 
his  boxing-matches  often  enough,  but,  how- 
ever superior,  his  opponents  bore  away  always 
the  impression  that  they  had  faced  a  fighter. 
But  the  battle  was  not  always  to  the  strong 
in  those  days.  I  have  heard  a  story  of  how 
Roosevelt  beat  a  man  with  a  reputation  as  a 
fighter,  but  not,  it  would  appear,  with  the  in- 
stincts of  a  gentleman.  I  shall  not  vouch  for  it, 
for  I  have  not  asked  him  about  it ;  but  it  is  typi- 
cal enough  to  be  true,  except  for  the  wonder 
how  the  fellow  got  in  there.  He  took,  so  the 
story  runs,  a  mean  advantage  and  struck  a 
blow  that  drew  blood  before  Roosevelt  had 
got  his  glove  on  right.  The  bystanders  cried 
foul,  but  Roosevelt  smiled  one  of  his  grim 
smiles. 

[30] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

"  I  guess  you  made  a  mistake.  We  do  not 
do  that  way  here,"  he  said,  offering  the  other 
his  gloved  hand  in  formal  salutation  as  a  sign 
to  begin  hostilities.  The  next  moment  his  right 
shot  out  and  took  the  man  upon  the  point  of  the 
jaw,  and  the  left  followed  suit.  In  two  min- 
utes he  was  down  and  out.  Roosevelt  was  "  in 
form  "  that  day.  All  the  fighting  blood  in  him 
had  been  roused  by  the  unfairness  of  the  blow. 
I  have  seen  him  when  his  blood  was  up  for 
good  cause  once  or  twice,  and  I  rather  think 
the  story  must  be  true.  If  I  were  to  fight  him 
and  wanted  to  win,  I  should  shun  a  foul  blow 
as  I  would  the  pestilence.  I  am  sure  I  would 
not  run  half  the  risk  from  the  latter. 

Play  was  part  of  the  college  life,  and  he 
took  a  hand  in  it  because  it  belonged.  Work 
was  the  bigger  part,  and  he  did  not  shirk  it,  or 
any  of  it.  I  am  not  sure,  but  I  have  a  notion 
that  he  did  not  like  arithmetic.  I  feel  it  in  my 
bones,  somehow.  Perhaps  the  wish  is  father  to 
the  thought.  I  know  I  hated  it.  But  I  will 
warrant  he  went  through  with  it  all  the  same, 
which  I  did  not.  I  think  he  was  among  the  first 
twenty  in  his  class,  which  graduated  a  hundred 
and  forty.  He  early  picked  out  as  his  special- 

[31] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

ties  the  history  of  men  and  things,  animals  in- 
cluded. The  ambition  to  be  a  naturalist  and  a 
professor  clung  to  him  still,  but  more  and  more 
the  doings  of  men  and  of  their  concerns  began 
to  attract  him.  It  was  so  with  all  he  did  in  col- 
lege, whether  at  work  or  play — it  was  the  life 
that  moved  in  it  he  was  after.  Unconsciously 
yet,  I  think,  his  own  life  began  to  shape  itself 
upon  its  real  lines.  He  read  the  "  Federalist  " 
with  the  entire  absorption  that  was  and  is  his 
characteristic,  and  lived  and  thought  with  the 
makers  of  our  government.  There  are  few 
public  men  to-day  who  are  more  firmly 
grounded  in  those  fundamentals  than  he,  and 
the  airy  assumption  of  shallow  politicians  and 
critics  who  think  they  have  in  Roosevelt  to  do 
with  a  man  of  their  own  kind  sometimes  makes 
me  smile.  The  faculty  of  forgetting  all  else 
but  the  topic  in  hand  is  one  of  the  great  se- 
crets of  his  success  in  whatever  he  has  under- 
taken as  an  official.  It  is  the  faculty  of  getting 
things  done.  They  tell  stories  yet,  that  go 
around  the  board  at  class  dinners,  of  how  he 
would  come  into  a  fellow-student's  room  for  a 
visit,  and,  picking  up  a  book,  would  become 
immediately  and  wholly  absorbed  in  its  con- 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

tents,  then  wake  up  with  a  guilty  start  to  con- 
fess that  his  whole  hour  was  gone  and  hurry 
away  while  they  shouted  after  him.  It  was  the 
student  in  him  which  we  in  our  day  are  so  apt. 
to  forget  in  the  man  of  action,  of  deeds.  But 
the  two  have  always  gone  together  in  him ;  they 
belong  together.  In  all  the  wild  excitement 
of  the  closing  hours  of  the  convention  that  set 
him  in  the  Vice-President's  chair  he,  alone  in 
an  inner  room,  was  reading  Thucydides,  says 
Albert  Shaw,  who  was  with  him.  He  was  rest- 
ing. I  saw  him  pick  up  a  book,  in  a  lull  in  the 
talk,  the  other  day,  and  instantly  forget  all 
things  else.  He  was  not  reading  the  book  as 
much  as  he  was  living  it.  So,  men  get  all  there 
is  out  of  what  is  in  hand,  and  they  are  few  who 
can  do  it.  However,  of  that  I  shall  have  more 
to  say  later,  when  I  have  him  in  Mulberry 
Street,  where  he  was  mine  for  two  years. 

His  college  chums,  sometimes,  seeing  the 
surface  drift  and  judging  from  it,  thought  him 
"  quite  unrestrained,"  as  one  of  them  put  it  to 
me,  meaning  that  he  lacked  a  strong  grip  on 
himself.  It  was  a  natural  mistake.  They  saw 
the  enthusiasm  that  gave  seemingly  full  vent 
to  itself  and  tested  men  by  the  contact,  not 

[33] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

the  cautious,  almost  wary,  deliberation  which 
in  the  end  guided  action,  though  he  himself 
but  half  knew  it.  They  laughed  a  little  at  his 
jump  at  the  proposition  to  go  to  Greenland 
with  a  classmate  and  study  the  fauna  there — he 
was  planning  the  trip  before  it  had  been  fairly 
suggested — and  at  the  preparations  he  made 
for  a  tiger-hunting  expedition  to  India  with  his 
brother  Elliott.  The  fact  that  in  both  cases  he 
acted  upon  the  coolest  judgment  and  stayed 
home  occurred  to  them  only  long  afterward. 
To  me  at  this  end,  with  his  later  life  to  interpret 
its  beginning,  it  seems  clear  enough  that  al- 
ready the  perfect  balance  that  has  distin- 
guished his  mental  processes  since  was  begin- 
ning to  assert  itself.  However  he  might  seem 
to  be  speeding  toward  extremes,  he  never  got 
there.  He  buried  himself  in  his  books,  but  he 
woke  up  at  the  proper  seasons,  and  what  he 
had  got  he  kept.  He  went  in  for  the  play, 
all  there  was  of  it,  but  he  never  mistook  the 
means  for  the  end  and  let  the  play  run  away 
with  him.  Long  years  after,  when  the  thing 
that  was  then  taking  shape  in  him  had  ripened, 
he  wrote  it  down  in  the  record  of  his  Western 
hunts:  "  In  a  certain  kind  of  fox-hunting  lore 

[34] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

there  is  much  reference  to  a  Warwickshire 
squire  who,  when  the  Parliamentary  and  Roy- 
alist armies  were  forming  for  the  battle  at 
Edgehill,  was  discovered  between  the  hostile 
lines,  unmovedly  drawing  the  covers  for  a  fox. 
Now,  this  placid  sportsman  should  by  rights 
have  been  slain  offhand  by  the  first  trooper  who 
reached  him,  whether  Cavalier  or  Roundhead. 
He  had  mistaken  means  for  ends,  he  had  con- 
founded the  healthful  play  which  should  fit 
a  man  for  needful  work  with  the  work  itself, 
and  mistakes  of  this  kind  are  sometimes  crim- 
inal. Hardy  sports  of  the  field  offer  the  best 
possible  training  for  war;  but  they  become  con- 
temptible when  indulged  in  while  the  nation 
is  at  death-grips  with  her  enemies." 

One  factor  in  this  mental  balance,  his  un- 
hesitating moral  courage  which  shirked  no  dis- 
agreeable task  and  was  halted  by  no  false  pride 
of  opinion,  had  long  been  apparent.  He  was 
known  as  a  good  hand  for  a  disagreeable  task 
that  had  to  be  done,  a  reproof  to  be  adminis- 
tered in  justice  and  fairness — I  am  thinking 
of  how  the  man  kept  that  promise  of  the  youth, 
before  Santiago,  when  for  the  twentieth  time 
he  "  wrecked  a  promising  career  "  with  his  fa- 

[35] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

mous  round-robin — and  also  for  the  generous 
speed  with  which  he  would  hasten  to  undo  a 
wrong  done  by  word  or  act.  There  were  no 
half-way  measures  with  him  then.  He  owned 
right  up.  "  He  was  fair  always,"  said  one  of 
his  classmates  who  was  close  to  him.  "  He 
never  tried  to  humbug  others,  or  himself  either, 
but  spoke  right  out  in  meeting,  telling  it  all." 
No  wonder  some  within  reach  thought  him 
erratic.  There  has  never  been  a  time  in  the 
history  of  the  world  when  such  a  course  would 
commend  itself  to  all  men  as  sane.  It  com- 
mended itself  to  him  as  right,  and  that  was 
enough. 

A  distinguishing  trait  in  his  father  had  been 
—he  died  while  Theodore  was  at  college— 
devotion  to  duty,  and  the  memory  of  it  and 
of  him  was  potent  with  the  son.  He  tried 
to  walk  in  his  steps.  "  I  tried  faithfully  to  do 
what  father  had  done,"  he  told  me  once  when 
we  talked  about  him,  "  but  I  did  it  poorly.  I 
became  Secretary  of  the  Prison  Reform  Asso- 
ciation (I  think  that  was  the  society  he  spoke 
of) ,  and  joined  this  and  that  committee.  Fa- 
ther had  done  good  work  on  so  many;  but  in 
the  end  I  found  out  that  we  have  each  to  work 

[36] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

in  his  own  way  to  do  our  best;  and  when  I 
struck  mine,  though  it  differed  from  his,  yet 
I  was  able  to  follow  the  same  lines  and  do 
what  he  would  have  had  me  do." 

It  was  thus  natural  that  Theodore  Roosevelt 
should  have  sought  out  a  Sunday-school  and  a 
chance  to  teach  as  soon  as  he  was  settled  at 
Harvard,  and  that  his  choice  should  have  fallen 
upon  a  mission  school.  He  went  there  in  pur- 
suit of  no  scheme,  of  philanthropy.  Provi- 
dence had  given  him  opportunities  and  a  train- 
ing that  were  denied  these,  and  it  was  simple 
fairness  that  he  should  help  his  neighbor  who 
was  less  fortunate  through  no  fault  of  his  own. 
The  Roosevelts  were  Dutch  Reformed.  He 
found  no  Dutch  Reformed  church  at  Cam- 
bridge, but  there  were  enough  of  other  denom- 
inations. The  handiest  was  Episcopal.  It 
happened  that  it  was  of  high  church  bent. 
Theodore  Roosevelt  asked  no  questions,  but 
went  to  work.  With  characteristic  directness 
he  was  laying  down  the  way  of  life  to  the 
boys  and  girls  in  his  class  when  an  untoward 
event  happened.  One  of  his  boys  came  to 
school  with  a  black  eye.  He  owned  up  that 
he  had  got  it  in  a  fight,  and  on  Sunday.  His 

[37] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

teacher  made  stern  inquiry.  "  Jim  "  some- 
body, it  appeared,  who  sat  beside  his  sister,  had 
been  pinching  her  all  through  the  hour,  and 
when  they  came  out  they  had  a  stand-up  fight 
and  he  punched  him  good,  bearing  away  the 
black  eye  as  his  share.  The  verdict  was  prompt. 
"  You  did  perfectly  right,"  said  his  teacher, 
and  he  gave  him  a  dollar.  To  the  class  it  was 
ideal  justice,  but  it  got  out  among  the  officers 
of  the  school  and  scandalized  them  dreadfully. 
Roosevelt  wras  not  popular  with  them.  Unfa- 
miliar with  the  forms  of  the  service,  he  had 
failed  at  times  to  observe  them  all  as  they 
thought  he  should.  They  wished  to  know  if  he 
had  any  objection  to  any  of  them.  No,  none 
in  the  world;  he  was  ready  to  do  anything 
required  of  him.  He  himself  was  Dutch  Re- 
formed— he  got  no  farther.  The  idea  of  a 
"  Dutch  Reformed  "  teaching  in  their  school, 
superimposed  upon  the  incident  of  the  black 
eye,  was  too  much.  They  parted  with  some- 
what formal  expressions  of  mutual  regard. 
Roosevelt  betook  himself  to  a  Congregational 
Sunday-school  near  by  and  taught  there  the 
rest  of  his  four  years'  course  in  college.  How 
it  fared  with  Jim's  conqueror  I  do  not  know. 

[38] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

Before  he  had  finished  the  course,  Roosevelt 
had  started  upon  his  literary  career.  It  came  in 
the  day's  work,  without  conscious  purpose  on 
his  part  to  write  a  book.  They  had  at  his  Club 
James'  history,  an  English  work,  and  he  found 
that  it  made  detailed  misstatements  about  the 
war  of  1812.  Upon  looking  up  American  au- 
thorities, it  turned  out  that  they  gave  no  de- 
tailed contradictions  of  these  statements.  The 
reason  was  not  wholly  free  from  meanness:  in 
nearly  all  the  sea-fights  of  that  war  the  Ameri- 
can forces  had  outnumbered  the  British,  often 
very  materially ;  but  the  home  historians,  wish- 
ing not  to  emphasize  this  fact,  had  contented 
themselves  with  the  mere  statement  that  the 
"  difference  was  trifling,"  thus  by  their  fool- 
ish vaunts  opening  the  door  to  exaggeration 
in  the  beaten  enemy's  camp.  The  facts  which 
Roosevelt  brought  out  from  the  official  files 
with  absolute  impartiality  grew  into  his 
first  book,  "  The  Naval  War  of  1812,"  which 
took  rank  at  once  as  an  authority.  The 
British  paid  the  young  author,  then  barely 
out  of  college,  the  high  compliment  of 
asking  him  to  write  the  chapter  on  this 
war  for  their  monumental  work  on  "  The 

[39] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

Royal  Navy,"  and  there  it  stands  to-day, 
unchallenged. 

So  with  work  and  with  play  and  with  the 
class  politics  in  which  Theodore  took  a  vigorous 
hand,  the  four  years  wore  away  as  one.  He 
was,  by  the  way,  not  a  good  speaker  in  those 
days,  I  am  told ;  but  such  speeches  as  he  made 
— and  he  never  farmed  the  duty  out  when  it 
was  his  to  do — were  very  much  to  the  point. 
One  is  remembered  yet  with  amusement  by 
a  distinguished  lawyer  in  this  city.  He  had 
be.p-n  making  an  elaborate  and  as  he  thought 
lucid  argument  in  class-meeting,  and  sat  down, 
properly  proud  of  the  impression  he  must  have 
made ;  when  up  rose  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

"  I  have  been  listening,  Mr.  Chairman,"  he 
spoke,  "  and,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  not  one  word 
of  what  Mr.  —  —  has  said  has  any  more  to  do 
with  this  matter  than  has  the  man  in  the  moon. 
It  is — "  but  the  class  was  in  a  roar,  and  what 
"  it  was  "  the  indignant  previous  speaker  never 
learned. 

But,  as  I  said,  the  years  passed,  and,  having 
graduated,  Roosevelt  went  abroad  to  spend  a 
yrnr  with  alternate  study  in  Cermany  and 
mountain  climbing  in  Switzerland  by  way  of 

[40] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

letting  off  steam.  Probably  the  verdict  men 
might  have  set  down  against  his  whole  col- 
lege career  would  have  been  that  it  was  in  no 
way  remarkable.  Here  and  there  some  one 
had  taken  notice  of  the  young  man,  as  hav- 
ing quite  unusual  powers  of  observation  and 
of  concentration,  but  nothing  had  happened 
of  any  extraordinary  nature,  though  things 
enough  happened  where  he  was  around.  Later 
on,  when  the  fact  had  long  compelled  public 
attention,  I  asked  him  how  it  was.  His  an- 
swer I  recommend  to  the  close  attention  and 
study  of  young  men  everywhere  who  want  to 

/get  on. 
"  I  put  myself  in  the  way  of  things  happen- 
ing," he  said,  "  and  they  happened." 

It  may  be  that  the  longer  they  think  of  it, 
like  myself,  the  more  they  will  see  in  it.  A 
plain  and  homely  prescription,  but  so,  when 
you  look  at  it,  has  been  the  man's  whole  life  so 
far — a  plain  talk  to  plain  people,  on  plain  is- 
sues of  right  and  wrong.  The  extraordinary 
thing  is  that  some  of  us  should  have  got  up  such 
a  heat  about  it.  Though,  come  to  think  of  it, 
that  is  n't  so  extraordinary  either;  the  issues 
are  so  very  plain.  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal  "  is 

[41] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

not  exactly  revolutionary  preaching,  but  it  is 
apt  to  stir  up  feelings  when  it  means  what  it 
says.  \(  No  extraordinary  ambitions,  no  other 
thought  than  to  do  his  share  of  what  there  was 
to  do,  and  to  do  it  well,  stirred  in  this  young 
student  now  sailing  across  the  seas  to  begin  life 
in  his  native  land,  to  take  up  a  man's  work  in  a 
man's  country.  None  of  his  college  chums 
had  been  found  to  predict  for  him  a  brilliant 
public  career.  Even  now  they  own  it. 

What,  then,  had  he  got  out  of  his  five  years 
of  study?  They  were  having  a  reunion  of  his 
class  when  he  was  Police  Commissioner,  and 
he  was  there.  One  of  the  professors  told  of  a 
student  coming  that  day  to  bid  him  good-by. 
He  asked  him  what  was  to  be  his  work  in  the 
world. 

"  Oh !  "  said  he,  with  a  little  yawn.  "  Really, 
do  you  know,  professor,  it  does  not  seem  to  me 
that  there  is  anything  that  is  much  worth 
while." 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  had  been  sitting, 
listening,  at  the  other  end  of  the  table,  got  up 
suddenly  and  worked  his  way  round  to  the  pro- 
fessor's seat.  He  struck  the  table  a  blow  that 
was  not  meant  for  it  alone. 

[43] 


WHAT  HE  GOT  OUT  OF  COLLEGE 

"  That  fellow,"  said  he,  "  ought  to  have  been 
knocked  in  the  head.  I  would  rather  take  my 
chances  with  a  blackmailing  policeman  than 
with  such  as  he." 

That  was  what  Theodore  Roosevelt  got  out 
of  his  years  at  Harvard.  And  I  think,  upon 
the  whole,  that  he  could  have  got  nothing  bet- 
ter, for  himself,  for  us,  or  for  the  college. 


[43] 


Ill 

EARLY   LESSONS    IN   POLITICS 


Ill 

EARLY  LESSONS^  IN  POLITICS 

IN  the  year  when  President  Garfield  died, 
New  York  saw  the  unusual  sight  of  two 
young  "  silk-stockings,"  neither  of  whom 
had  ever  been  in  politics  before,  running  for 
office  in  a  popular  election.  One  was  the  rep- 
resentative of  vast  inherited  wealth,  the  other 
of  the  bluest  of  the  old  Knickerbocker  blood: 
William  Waldorf  Astor  and  Theodore  Roose- 
velt. One  ran  for  Congress,  pouring  out 
money  like  water,  contemptuously  confident 
that  so  he  could  buy  his  way  in.  The  news- 
papers reported  his  nightly  progress  from  sa- 
loon to  saloon,  where  "  the  boys  "  were  thirstily 
waiting  to  whoop  it  up  for  him,  and  the  size 
of  "  the  wad  "  he  left  at  each  place,  as  with  ill- 
suppressed  disgust  he  fled  to  the  next.  The 
other,  nominated  for  the  State  Legislature  on 

[47] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

an  issue  of  clean  streets  and  clean  politics, 
though  but  a  year  out  of  college,  made  his  can- 
vass squarely  upon  that  basis,  and  astounded 
old-time  politicians  by  the  fire  he  put  into  the 
staid  residents  of  the  brownstone  district,  who 
were  little  in  the  habit  of  bothering  about  elec- 
tions. He,  too,  was  started  upon  a  round  of  the 
saloons,  under  management.  At  the  first  call 
the  management  and  that  end  of  the  canvass 
gave  out  together.  Thereafter  he  went  it  alone. 
He  was  elected,  and  twice  re-elected  to  his  seat, 
with  ever-increasing  majorities.  Astor  was 
beaten,  and,  in  anger,  quit  the  country.  To- 
day he  lives  abroad,  a  self -expatriated  Ameri- 
can. Theodore  Roosevelt,  who  believes  in  the 
people,  is  President  of  the  United  States. 

There  was  no  need  of  my  asking  him  how  he 
came  to  go  into  politics,  for  how  he  could  have 
helped  it  I  cannot  see ;  but  I  did.  He  thought 
awhile. 

"  I  suppose  for  one  thing  ordinary,  plain, 
every-day  duty  sent  me  there  to  begin  with. 
But,  more  than  that,  I  wanted  to  belong  to  the 
governing  class,  not  to  the  governed.  When 
I  said  that  I  wanted  to  go  to  the  Republican 
Association,  they  told  me  that  I  would  meet 

[48] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

the  groom  and  the  saloon-keeper  there;  that 
politics  were  low,  and  that  no  gentleman  both- 
ered with  them.  '  Then,'  said  I,  '  if  that  is  so, 
the  groom  and  the  saloon-keeper  are  the  gov- 
erning class  and  you  confess  weakness.  You 
have  all  the  chances,  the  education,  the  position, 
and  you  let  them  rule  you.  They  must  be 
better  men ; '  and  I  went. 

"  I  joined  the  association,  attended  the  meet- 
ings, and  did  my  part  in  whatever  was  going. 
We  did  n't  always  agree,  and  sometimes  they 
voted  me  down  and  sometimes  I  had  my  way. 
They  were  a  jolly  enough  lot  and  I  had  a  good 
time.  The  grooms  were  there,  some  of  them, 
and  some  of  their  employers,  and  we  pulled 
together  as  men  should  if  we  are  to  make  any- 
thing out  of  our  country,  and  by  and  by  we  had 
an  election." 

There  had  been  a  fight  about  the  dirty 
streets.  The  people  wanted  a  free  hand  given 
to  Mayor  Grace,  but  the  machine  opposed. 
The  Assemblyman  from  Roosevelt's  district, 
the  old  Twenty-first,  was  in  disgrace  on  that 
account.  The  Republican  boss  of  the  district, 
"  Jake  "  Hess,  was  at  odds  with  his  lieuten- 
ants, "  Joe  "  Murray  and  Major  Bullard,  and 

[49] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  making  up  the  list  of  delegates  to  the  As- 
sembly Convention  they  outgeneraled  him, 
naming  fifteen  of  the  twenty-five.  Thus  they 
had  the  nomination  within  their  grasp,  but 
they  had  no  candidate.  Roosevelt  had  taken  an 
active  part  in  opposing  the  machine  man,  and 
he  and  Murray  had  pulled  together.  There 
is  something  very  characteristic  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt  in  this  first  political  alliance  as  re- 
lated by  Murray.  "  When  he  found  we  were 
on  the  same  side,  he  went  to  Ed  Mitchell,  who 
had  been  in  the  Legislature,  and  asked  what 
kind  of  a  man  I  was,  and  when  he  was  told 
he  gave  me  his  confidence."  It  is  another 
of  the  simple  secrets  of  his  success  in  dealing 
with  men:  to  make  sure  of  them  and  then  to 
trust  them.  Men  rarely  betray  that  kind  of 
trust.  Murray  did  not. 

Presently  he  bethought  himself  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  who  was  fighting  but  didn't  yet  quite 
know  how.  As  a  candidate  he  might  bring  out 
the  vote  which  ordinarily  in  that  silk-stocking 
district  came  to  the  polls  only  in  a  Presidential 
year.  He  asked  him  to  run,  but  Roosevelt 
refused.  It  might  look  as  if  he  had  come  there 
for  his  personal  advantage.  Murray  reasoned 

[50] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

with  him,  but  he  was  firm.  He  suggested 
several  candidates,  and  one  after  another 
they  were  turned  down.  Roosevelt  had  an- 
other batch.  Murray  promised  to  look  them 
over. 

"  And  if  I  can't  find  one  to  suit,  will  you 
take  it  then?  "  he  asked.  Yes,  he  would  do 
that,  as  a  last  resort. 

"  But  I  did  n't  look  for  no  other  candidate 
when  I  had  his  promise,"  says  "  Joe,"  placidly, 
telling  of  it.  "  Good  reason :  I  could  n't  find 
any  better,  nor  as  good." 

"  Joe  "  Murray  is  a  politician,  but  that  day 
he  plotted  well  for  his  country. 

Roosevelt  was  nominated  and  began  the  can- 
vass at  once.  The  boss  himself  took  him  around 
to  the  saloons  that  night,  to  meet  "  the  peo- 
ple." They  began  at  Valentine  Young's  place 
on  Sixth  Avenue.  Mr.  Hess  treated  and  in- 
troduced the  candidate.  Mr.  Young  was 
happy.  He  hoped  he  was  against  high  license ; 
he,  Young,  hated  it.  Now,  Roosevelt  was  at- 
tracted by  high  license  and  promptly  said  so 
and  that  he  would  favor  it  all  he  could.  He 
gave  his  reasons.  The  argument  became 
heated,  the  saloon-keeper  personal.  The  boss 

[51] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

looked  on,  stunned.  He  did  not  like  that  way 
of  making  votes. 

Neither  did  Mr.  Roosevelt.  He  sent  "Jake" 
Hess  home  and  quit  the  saloon  canvass  then 
and  there.  Instead  he  went  among  his  neigh- 
bors and  appealed  to  them.  The  "  brown- 
stone  "  vote  came  out.  "  Joe  "  Murray  rubs  his 
hands  yet  at  the  thought  of  it.  Sucji  a  follow- 
ing he  had  not  dreamed  of  in  his  wildest  flights. 
Men  worth  millions  solicited  the  votes  of  their 
coachmen  and  were  glad  to  get  them.  Dean 
Van  Amringe  peddled  tickets  with  the  Co- 
lumbia professors.  Men  became  suddenly 
neighbors  who  had  never  spoken  to  one  another 
before,  and  pulled  together  for  the  public  good. 
Murray  was  charged  with  trading  his  candi- 
date off  for  Astor  for  Congress ;  but  the  event 
vindicated  him  triumphantly.  Roosevelt  ran 
far  ahead  of  the  beaten  candidate  for  Con- 
gress. He  took  his  seat  in  the  Legislature, 
the  youngest  member  in  it,  just  as  he  is  now 
the  youngest  President. 

He  was  not  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the 
old  wheel-horses,  and  the  fact  did  credit  to  their 
discernment,  if  not  to  their  public  spirit.  I 
doubt  if  they  would  have  understood  what  was 

[52] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

meant  by  this  last.  They  were  there  on  the 
good  old  plan — good  so  far  always  for  the 
purpose  it  served — that  was  put  in  its  plainest, 
most  brutal  form,  years  after,  by  the  champion 
of  spoilsmen  forever:  "I  am  in  politics  work- 
ing for  my  own  pocket  all  the  time — same  as 
you."  The  sneer  told  of  their  weak  spot.  The 
man  who  has  lost  faith  in  man  has  lost  his  grip. 
He  may  not  know  it,  but  he  has.  I  fancy  they 
felt  it  at  the  coming  of  this  young  man  who 
had  taught  the  Commandments  in  Sunday- 
school  because  he  believed  in  them.  They 
laughed  a  little  uneasily  and  guessed  he  would 
be  good,  if  he  were  kept  awhile. 

Before  half  the  season  had  passed  he  had 
justified  their  fears,  if  they  had  them.  There 
was  an  elevated  railroad  ring  that  had  been 
guilty  of  unblushing  corruption  involving  the 
Attorney-General  of  the  State  and  a  Judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court.  The  scandal  was  flagrant 
and  foul.  The  people  were  aroused,  petitioned 
respectfully  but  chafed  angrily  under  the 
yawn  with  which  their  remonstrances  were 
received  in  the  Assembly.  The  legislators 
"  referred  "  the  petition  and  thought  it  dead. 
But  they  had  forgotten  Roosevelt. 

[53] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

He  had  been  watching  and  wondering.  To 
him  an  unsullied  judiciary  was  the  ground 
fabric  of  society.  Here  were  charges  of  the 
most  serious  kind  against  a  judge  smothered 
unheard.  He  asked  his  elders  on  the  Republi- 
can benches  what  was  to  be  done  about  it. 
Nothing.  Nothing?  Then  he  would  inquire 
publicly.  They  ran  to  him  in  alarm.  Nothing 
but  harm  could  come  of  it,  to  him  and  to  the 
party.  He  must  not;  it  was  rank  folly.  The 
thing  was  loaded. 

"  It  was,"  wrote  an  unnamed  writer  in  the 
"  Saturday  Evening  Post,"  whose  story  should 
be  framed  and  hung  in  the  Assembly  Cham- 
ber as  a  chart  for  young  legislators  of  good 
intentions  but  timid  before  sneers,  "  it  was  ob- 
viously the  counsel  of  experienced  wisdom.  So 
far  as  the  clearest  judgment  could  see,  it  was 
not  the  moment  for  attack.  Indeed,  it  looked 
as  if  attack  would  strengthen  the  hands  of  cor- 
ruption by  exposing  the  weakness  of  the  oppo- 
sition to  it.  Never  did  expediency  put  a 
temptation  to  conscience  more  insidiously. 

"  It  was  on  April  6, 1882,  that  young  Roose- 
velt took  the  floor  in  the  Assembly  and  de- 
manded that  Judge  Westbrook,  of  Newburg, 

[54] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

be  impeached.  And  for  sheer  moral  courage 
that  act  is  probably  supreme  in  Roosevelt's  life 
thus  far.  He  must  have  expected  failure. 
Even  his  youth  and  idealism  and  ignorance  of 
public  affairs  could  not  blind  him  to  the  ap- 
parently inevitable  consequences.  Yet  he  drew 
his  sword  and  rushed  apparently  to  destruc- 
tion—alone, and  at  the  very  outset  of  his  ca- 
reer, and  in  disregard  of  the  pleadings  of  his 
closest  friends  and  the  plain  dictates  of  po- 
litical wisdom. 

"  That  speech — the  deciding  act  in  Roose- 
velt's career — is  not  remarkable  for  eloquence. 
But  it  is  remarkable  for  fearless  candor.  He 
called  thieves  thieves  regardless  of  their  mil- 
lions; he  slashed  savagely  at  the  Judge  and 
the  Attorney-General;  he  told  the  plain,  un- 
varnished truth  as  his  indignant  eyes  saw  it. 

"  When  he  finished,  the  veteran  leader  of 
the  Republicans  rose  and  with  gently  contemp- 
tuous raillery  asked  that  the  resolution  to  take 
up  the  charges  be  voted  down.  He  said  he 
wished  to  give  young  Mr.  Roosevelt  time  to 
think  about  the  wisdom  of  his  course.  '  I,'  said 
he,  '  have  seen  many  reputations  in  the  State 
broken  down  by  loose  charges  made  in  the 

[55] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

Legislature.'  And  presently  the  Assembly 
gave  '  young  Mr.  Roosevelt  time  to  think '  by 
voting  not  to  take  up  his  '  loose  charges.' 

"  Ridicule,  laughter,  a  ripple— apparently  it 
was  all  over,  except  the  consequences  to  the 
bumptious  and  dangerous  young  man  which 
might  flow  from  the  cross  set  against  his  name 
in  the  black  books  of  the  ring. 

"  It  was  a  disheartening  defeat — almost  all 
of  his  own  party  voted  against  him;  the  most 
earnest  of  those  who  ventured  to  support  him 
were  Democrats;  perhaps  half  of  those  who 
voted  with  him  did  so  merely  because  their 
votes  were  not  needed  to  beat  him. 

"  That  night  the  young  man  was  once  more 
urged  to  be  '  sensible,'  to  '  have  regard  to  his 
future  usefulness,'  to  '  cease  injuring  the 
party.'  He  snapped  his  teeth  together  and 
defied  the  party  leaders.  And  the  next  day  he 
again  rose  and  again  lifted  his  puny  voice  and 
his  puny  hand  against  smiling,  contemptuous 
corruption.  Day  after  day  he  persevered  on 
the  floor  of  the  Assembly,  in  interviews  for  the 
press;  a  few  newspapers  here  and  there  joined 
him ;  Assemblymen  all  over  the  State  began  to 
hear  from  their  constituents.  Within  a  week 

[56] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

his  name  was  known  from  Buffalo  to  Montauk 
Point,  and  everywhere  the  people  were  ap- 
plauding him.  On  the  eighth  day  of  his  bold, 
smashing  attack  the  resolution  to  take  up  the 
charges  was  again  voted  upon  at  his  demand. 
And  the  Assemblymen,  with  the  eyes  of  the 
whole  people  upon  them,  did  not  dare  longer 
to  keep  themselves  on  record  as  defenders  of  a 
judge  who  feared  to  demand  an  investigation. 
The  opposition  collapsed.  Roosevelt  won  by 
104  to  6." 

In  the  end  the  corruptionists  escaped.  The 
committee  made  a  whitewashing  report.  But 
the  testimony  was  damning  and  more  than  vin- 
dicated the  attack.  A  victory  had  been  won; 
open  corruption  had  been  driven  to  the  wall. 
Roosevelt  had  met  his  party  on  a  moral  issue 
and  had  forced  it  over  on  the  side  of  right. 
He  had  achieved  backing.  Out  of  that  fight 
came  the  phrase  "  the  wealthy  criminal  class  " 
that  ran  through  the  country.  In  his  essay  on 
"  true  American  ideals  "  he  identifies  it  with 
"  the  conscienceless  stock  speculator  who  ac- 
quires wealth  by  swindling  his  fellows,  by  de- 
bauching judges  and  legislatures,"  and  his 
kind.  "  There  is  not,"  he  exclaims,  "in  the 

[57] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

world  a  more  ignoble  character  than  the  mere 
money-getting  American,  insensible  to  every 
duty,  regardless  of  every  principle,  bent  only 
on  amassing  a  fortune,  and  putting  his  fortune 
only  to  the  basest  uses— whether  these  uses  be 
to  speculate  in  stocks  and  wreck  railroads  him- 
self, or  to  allow  his  son  to  lead  a  life  of  foolish 
and  expensive  idleness  and  gross  debauchery, 
or  to  purchase  some  scoundrel  of  high  social 
position,  foreign  or  native,  for  his  daughter." 

"  Young  Mr.  Roosevelt  "  went  into  the  next 
Legislature  re-elected  with  a  big  majority  in 
a  year  that  saw  his  party  go  down  in  defeat  all 
along  the  line,  as  its  leader  on  the  floor  of  the 
house.  At  twenty-four  he  was  proposed  for 
Speaker.  Then  came  his  real  test.  Long  after, 
he  told  me  of  it. 

"  I  suppose,"  he  said,  "  that  my  head  was 
swelled.  It  would  not  be  strange  if  it  was. 
I  stood  out  for  my  own  opinion,  alone.  I  took 
the  best  mugwump  stand :  my  own  conscience, 
my  own  judgment,  were  to  decide  in  all  things. 
I  would  listen  to  no  argument,  no  advice.  I 
took  the  isolated  peak  on  every  issue,  and  my 
people  left  me.  When  I  looked  around,  before 
the  session  was  well  under  way,  I  found  my- 

[58] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

self  alone.  I  was  absolutely  deserted.  The 
people  did  n't  understand.  The  men  from 
Erie,  from  Suffolk,  from  anywhere,  would  not 
work  with  me.  *  He  won't  listen  to  anybody,' 
they  said,  and  I  would  not.  My  isolated  peak 
had  become  a  valley'  every  bit  of  influence  I 
had  was  gone.  The  things  I  wanted  to  do  I 
was  powerless  to  accomplish.  What  did  I  do? 
I  looked  the  ground  over  and  made  up  my 
mind  that  there  were  several  other  excellent 
people  there,  with  honest  opinions  of  the  right, 
even  though  they  differed  from  me.  I  turned 
in  to  help  them,  and  they  turned  to  and  gave 
me  a  hand.  And  so  we  were  able  to  get  things 
done.  We  did  not  agree  in  all  things,  but  we 
did  in  some,  and  those  we  pulled  at  together. 
That  was  my  first  lesson  in  real  politics.  It 
is  just  this:  if  you  are  cast  on  a  desert  island 
with  only  a  screw-driver,  a  hatchet,  and  a  chisel 
to  make  a  boat  with,  why,  go  make  the  best  one 
you  can.  It  would  be  better  if  you  had  a  saw, 
but  you  have  n't.  So  with  men.  Here  is  my 
friend  in  Congress  who  is  a  good  man,  a  strong 
man,  but  cannot  be  made  to  believe  in  some 
things  which  I  trust.  It  is  too  bad  that  he 
does  n't  look  at  it  as  I  do,  but  he  does  not,,  and 

[59] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

we  have  to  work  together  as  we  can.  There  is 
a  point,  of  course,  where  a  man  must  take  the 
isolated  peak  and  break  with  it  all  for  clear 
principle,  but  until  it  comes  he  must  work,  if  he 
would  be  of  use,  with  men  as  they  are.  As  long 
as  the  good  in  them  overbalances  the  evil,  let 
him  work  with  that  for  the  best  that  can  be 
got." 

One  can  hardly  turn  a  page  of  his  writings 
even  to  this  day  without  coming  upon  evidence 
that  he  has  never  forgotten  the  lesson  of  the 
isolated  peak. 

The  real  things  of  life  were  getting  their 
grip  on  him  more  and  more.  The  old  laissez 
faire  doctrine  that  would  let  bad  enough  alone 
because  it  was  the  easiest  way  still  pervaded 
the  teaching  of  his  college  days,  as  applied  to 
social  questions.  The  day  of  the  Settlement 
had  not  yet  come;  but  his  father  had  been  a 
whole  social  settlement  and  a  charity  organiza- 
tion society  combined  in  his  own  person,  and 
the  son  was  not  content  with  the  bookish  view 
of  affairs  that  so  intimately  concerned  the  wel- 
fare of  the  republic  to  which  he  led  back  all 
things.  The  bitter  cry  of  the  virtually  enslaved 
tenement  cigarmakers  had  reached  Albany, 

[60]. 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

and  Roosevelt  went  to  their  rescue  at  once.  He 
was  not  satisfied  with  hearsay  evidence,  but 
went  through  the  tenements  and  saw  for  him- 
self. The  conditions  he  found  made  a  pro- 
found impression  upon  him.  They  were  after- 
ward, when  I  wrote  "  How  the  Other  Half 
Lives,"  an  introduction  to  him  and  a  bond  of 
sympathy  between  us.  He  told  the  Legisla- 
ture what  he  had  seen,  and  a  bill  was  passed 
to  stop  the  evil,  but  it  was  declared  unconsti- 
tutional in  the  courts.  The  time  was  not  yet 
ripe  for  many  things  in  which  he  was  after- 
ward to  bear  a  hand.  A  dozen  years  later,  as 
Health  Commissioner,  he  helped  destroy  some 
of  the  very  tenements  in  which  at  that  earlier 
day  industrial  slavery  in  its  worst  form  was 
intrenched  too  strongly  to  be  dislodged  by  law. 
The  world  "  do  move,"  with  honest  hands  to 
help  it. 

It  was  so  with  the  investigation  of  the  city 
departments  he  headed.  There  was  enough  to 
investigate,  but  we  had  not  yet  grown  a  con- 
science robust  enough  to  make  the  facts  tell. 
Parkhurst  had  first  to  prepare  the  ground. 
The  committee  sat  for  a  couple  of  weeks,  per- 
haps three,  at  the  old  Metropolitan  Hotel,  and 

[61] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

it  was  there  I  first  met  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
when  the  police  officials  were  on  the  stand.  I 
remember  distinctly  but  one  incident  of  that 
inquiry.  It  was  when  lawyer  George  Bliss, 
who  could  be  very  cutting  when  it  suited  his 
purpose,  made  an  impertinent  remark,  as  coun- 
sel for  the  Police  Commissioners.  I  can  see 
"  young  "  Mr.  Roosevelt  yet,  leaning  across 
the  table  with  the  look  upon  his  face  that  al- 
ways compelled  attention,  and  saying  with 
pointed  politeness :  "  Of  course  you  do  not 
mean  that,  Mr.  Bliss ;  for  if  you  did  we  should 
have  to  have  you  put  out  in  the  street."  Mr. 
Bliss  did  not  mean  it. 

It  was  at  that  session,  too,  I  think,  that  he 
struck  his  first  blow  for  the  civil  service  re- 
form which  his  father  contended  for  when  it 
had  few  friends ;  for  which  cause  the  Republi- 
can machine  rejected  his  nomination  for  Col- 
lector of  the  Port  of  New  York.  I  know  how 
it  delighted  the  son's  heart  to  carry  on  his  fa- 
ther's work  then  and  when  afterward  as  Gov- 
ernor he  clinched  it  in  the  best  civil  service  law 
the  State  has  ever  had.  But,  more  than  that, 
he  saw  that  this  was  one  of  the  positions  to  be 
rushed  if  the  enemy  were  to  be  beaten  out. 

[62] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

Another  was  the  power  of  confirmation  the 
Aldermen  had  over  the  Mayor's  appointments 
in  New  York.  Thus  even  the  best  administra- 
tion would  be  helpless  with  a  majority  of  Tam- 
many members  on  the  Board  of  Aldermen. 
Such  a  thing  as  the  election  of  a  reform  Board 
of  Aldermen  was  then  unthinkable.  He 
wrested  that  power  from  them  and  gave  it  to 
the  Mayor,  and,  in  doing  it,  all  unconsciously 
paved  the  way  for  himself  to  the  office  in  which, 
under  Mayor  Strong,  he  leaped  into  National 
importance.  There  are  many  striking  coinci- 
dences of  the  kind  in  Theodore  Roosevelt's 
career.  I  have  noticed  that  they  are  to  be 
found  in  the  life  of  every  man  who  goes  straight 
ahead  and  does  what  he  knows  is  right,  taking 
the  best  counsel  he  can  and  learning  from  life 
as  it  shapes  itself  under  his  touch.  All  the 
time  he  is  laying  out  grappling-hooks,  without 
knowing  it,  for  the  opportunity  that  comes 
only  to  the  one  who  can  profit  by  it,  and,  when 
it  passes,  he  lays  hold  of  it  quite  naturally.  It 
is  only  another  way  of  putting  Roosevelt's  phi- 
losophy that  things  happen  to  those  who  are 
in  the  way  of  it.  It  is  the  idlers  who  prate 
of  chance  and  luck.  Luck  is  lassoed  by  the 

[63] 


THEODORE,    ROOSEVELT 

masterful  man,  by  the  man  who  knows  and  who 
can.  And  it  is  well  that  it  is  so,  or  we  should 
be  in  a  pretty  mess. 

I  have  spoken  at  considerable  length  about 
Theodore  Roosevelt's  early  legislative  expe- 
rience because  I  am  concerned  about  showing 
how  he  grew  to  what  he  is.  Men  do  not  jump 
up  in  a  night  like  mushrooms,  some  good  cred- 
ulous people  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding, 
or  shoot  up  like  rockets.  If  they  do,  they  are 
apt  to  come  down  like  sticks.  At  least  Mr. 
Roosevelt  stays  up  a  long  time,  they  will  have 
to  admit.  I  have  heard  of  him  being  "  dis- 
covered "  by  politicians  as  Civil  Service  Com- 
missioner, as  Police  Commissioner,  as  fitter-out 
of  the  navy  for  the  Spanish  fight,  as  Rough- 
Rider — almost  as  often  as  he  has  been  ruined 
by  his  vagaries  which  no  one  could  survive ;  and 
I  have  about  made  up  my  mind  that  politicians 
are  the  most  credulous  of  beings,  instead  of 
the  reverse.  The  fact  is  that  he  is  a  perfectly 
logical  product  of  a  certain  course  of  conduct 
deliberately  entered  upon  and  faithfully  ad- 
hered to  all  through  life,  as  all  of  us  are  who 
have  any  character  worth  mentioning.  For 
that  is  what  character  means,  that  a  man  will 

[64] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

do  so  and  so  as  occasions  arise  demanding 
action.  Now  here  is  a  case  in  point.  When 
President  Roosevelt  speaks  nowadays  about 
the  necessity  of  dropping  all  race  and  creed  dis- 
tinctions, if  we  want  to  be  good  Americans, 
some  one  on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd  winks 
his  left  eye  and  says  "  politics."  When  he 
promoted  a  Jew  in  the  Police  Department  or 
in  his  regiment,  it  was  politics,  politics.  WepA 
this  incident  I  am  going  to  tell  you  about  he 
had  himself  forgotten.  When  I  asked  him 
about  it,  he  recalled  it  slowly  and  with  diffi- 
culty, for  it  happened  in  the  days  before  he  had 
entered  the  Legislature.  I  had  it  from  a  friend 
of  his,  the  head  of  one  of  our  great  institutions 
of  learning,  who  was  present  at  the  time. 

It  was  at  the  Federal  Club,  a  young  Repub- 
lican club  started  to  back  up  the  older  organ- 
ization and  since  merged  with  it.  A  young 
Jew  had  been  proposed  for  membership.  He 
was  of  good  family,  personally  unobjection- 
able, had  no  enemies  in  the  club.  Yet  it  was 
proposed  deliberately  to  blackball  him.  There 
was  no  pretense  about  it;  it  was  a  perfectly 
bald  issue  of  Gentile  against  Jew  in  a  club 
where  it  was  easy  to  keep  him  out,  at  least  so 

[65] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

they  thought — till  Koosevelt  heard  of  it  at 
the  meeting.  Then  and  there  he  got  up  and 
said  what  he  thought  of  it.  It  was  not  com- 
plimentary to  the  conspirators.  They  were 
there  as  Republicans,  as  American  citizens,  he 
said,  to  work  together  for  better  things  on  the 
basis  of  being  decent.  The  proposition  to 
exclude  a  man  because  he  was  a  Jew  was  not 
decent.  For  him,  the  minute  race  and  creed 
were  brought  into  the  club,  he  would  quit,  and 
at  once. 

"  He  flayed  them  as  I  never  heard  a  body  of 
men  flayed  in  my  life,"  said  my  informant 
"  Roosevelt  was  pale  with  anger.  The  club  sat 
perfectly  still  under  the  lashing.  When  he  sat 
down  amid  profound  silence,  the  vote  was 
taken.  There  were  no  black  balls.  The  Jew- 
never  knew  how  narrowly  he  missed  getting 
in."  He  had  a  chance  to  vote  for  Roosevelt 
three  times  for  the  Legislature  in  settlement  of 
the  account  he  did  not  know  he  owed,  and  I 
hope  he  did. 

When  Mr.  Roosevelt's  third  term  was  out, 
he  had  earned  a  seat  in  the  National  council 
of  his  party.  He  went  to  Chicago  in  1884  as  a 
delegate  to  the  convention  which  nominated 

[66] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

Elaine.  He  was  strongly  in  opposition,  and 
fought  hard  to  prevent  the  nomination.  The 
outcome  was  a  sore  thrust  to  him.  Some  of  his 
associates  never  forgave  him  that  he  did  not 
bolt  with  them  and  stay  out.  Roosevelt  came 
back  from  the  far  West,  where  he  had  gone 
to  wear  off  his  disappointment,  and  went  into 
the  fight  with  his  party.  His  training  was 
bearing  fruit.  "  At  times,"  I  read  in  one  of 
his  essays,  "  a  man  must  cut  loose  from  his  as- 
sociates and  stand  for  a  great  cause;  but  the 
necessity  for  such  action  is  almost  as  rare  as 
the  necessity  for  a  revolution."  He  did  not 
join  in  the  revolution;  the  time  had  not  come, 
in  his  judgment,  to  take  the  isolated  peak. 

There  came  to  me  just  now  a  letter  from 
one  of  his  classmates  in  college  who  has  heard 
that  I  am  writing  about  Mr.  Roosevelt.  He 
was  one  of  those  who  revolted,  but  I  shall  set 
his  testimony  down  here  as  quite  as  good  an 
explanation  of  Theodore  Roosevelt's  course  as 
Mr.  Roosevelt  could  furnish  himself. 

"  He  was,"  he  writes,  speaking  of  his  college 
friend,  "  next  to  my  own  father,  the  purest- 
minded  man  I  ever  knew.  .  .  .  He  was  free 
from  any  tinge  of  self-seeking.  Indeed,  he 

[67] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

was  free,  as  I  knew  liirn,  from  self -conscious- 
ness. What  he  said  and  did  was  simply  the 
unstudied  expression  of  his  true  self.  .  .  .  Al- 
though I  very  rarely  see  him,  I  have  naturally 
followed  his  career  with  close  interest.  I  am 
convinced  that  the  few  of  his  acts  that  I  find  it 
hard  to  condone  (e.g.,  his  advocacy  of  Mr. 
Elaine's  election  to  the  Presidency,  and  his  own 
acceptance  of  nomination  for  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency) are  explained  by  the  fact  that  he  has 
from  the  start  been  a  party  man,  not  merely  a 
believer  in  party  government  and  a  faithful 
party  member,  but  a  devout  believer,  appar- 
ently, in  the  dogma  that  the  success  of  his  party 
is  essential  to  the  welfare  of  the  country." 

At  that  convention  George  William  Cur- 
tis was  also  a  delegate  from  New  York.  In 
a  newspaper  I  picked  up  the  other  day  were 
some  reminiscences  of  the  great  fight  by  a 
newspaper  man  who  was  there.  He  told  of 
meeting  the  famous  Easy  Chair  at  luncheon 
when  the  strife  was  fiercest.  He  expressed 
some  surprise  at  the  youth  of  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
of  whom  the  West  then  knew  little.  What 
followed  sounds  so  like  prophecy  that  I  quote 
it  here.  The  reporter  wrote  it  down  from  mem- 

[68] 


EARLY  LESSONS  IN  POLITICS 

ory  that  night,  so  he  says,  and  by  accident  came 
across  his  notes,  hence  the  item : 

Mr.  Curtis  moved  his  chair  back  from  the  table, 
threw  his  napkin  beside  his  plate,  and  was  silent  for  a 
few  seconds.  Then  he  said,  in  his  quiet,  modulated 
tones : 

"  You'll  know  more,  sir,  later;  a  deal  more,  or  I 
am  much  in  error.  Young?  Why,  he  is  just  out  of 
school  almost,  yet  he  is  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with 
in  New  York.  Later  the  Nation  will  be  criticising  or 
praising  him.  While  respectful  to  the  gray  hairs  and 
experience  of  his  elders,  none  of  them  can  move  him 
an  iota  from  convictions  as  to  men  and  measures  once 
formed  and  rooted.  He  has  integrity,  courage,  fair 
scholarship,  a  love  for  public  life,  a  comfortable  amount 
of  money,  honorable  descent,  the  good  word  of  the 
honest.  He  will  not  truckle  nor  cringe,  he  seems  to 
court  opposition  to  the  point  of  being  somewhat  pug- 
nacious. His  political  life  will  probably  be  a  turbu- 
lent one,  but  he  will  be  a  figure,  not  a  figurehead,  in 
future  development — or,  if  not,  it  will  be  because 
he  gives  up  politics  altogether. ' ' 

Such  a  verdict  from  such  a  man  upon  three 
years  of  the  strife  and  sweat  of  very  practical 
politics  I  should  have  thought  worth  all  it  cost, 
and  I  know  so  does  Mr.  Roosevelt. 


[69] 


IV 

THE  HORSE  AND  THE  GUN 
HAVE  THEIR  DAY 


IV 

THE  HORSE  AND  THE  GUN 
HAVE  THEIR  DAY 

PERHAPS  no  more  striking  description 
of  a  landscape  was  ever  attempted  than 
when  Mr.  Roosevelt  said  that  in  the 
Bad  Lands  he  always  felt  as  if  they  somehow 
looked  just  as  Poe's  tales  and  poems  sound. 
It  is  with  this  as  I  said  before:  we  sometimes 
forget  the  man  of  words  in  the  man  of  deeds. 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  writings  occasionally  suffer 
from  a  lack  of  patience  to  edit  and  to  polish, 
but  they  are  always  full  of  vigor  and  direct- 
ness; in  other  words,  he  is  himself  when  he 
writes  as  when  he  talks ;  and  never  more  so  than 
when  he  writes  of  the  great  West  to  which  I 
often  think  he  belongs  more  than  to  the  East 
where  he  was  born.  His  home  ranch  in  western 
North  Dakota  was  among  the  Bad  Lands  of 

[73] 


THEODORE!  ROOSEVELT 

the  Little  Missouri.  To  grasp  fully  the  mean- 
ing of  the  comparison  with  Poe,  read  this  from 
his  account  of  an  elk -hunting  trip  out  there : 

"  The  tracks  led  into  one  of  the  wildest  and 
most  desolate  parts  of  the  Bad  Lands.  It  was 
now  the  heat  of  the  day,  the  brazen  sun  shining 
out  in  a  cloudless  sky  and  not  the  least  breeze 
stirring.  At  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  in  the 
deep  narrow  bed  of  the  winding  watercourse, 
lay  a  few  tepid  little  pools,  almost  dried  up. 
Thick  groves  of  stunted  cedars  stood  here  and 
there  in  the  glen-like  pockets  of  the  high  buttes, 
the  peaks  and  sides  of  which  were  bare,  and 
only  their  lower,  terrace-like  ledges  thinly  clad 
with  coarse,  withered  grass  and  sprawling  sage- 
brush ;  the  parched  hillsides  were  riven  by  deep, 
twisted  gorges,  with  brushwood  on  the  bot- 
toms; and  the  cliffs  of  coarse  clay  were  cleft 
and  seamed  by  sheer-sided,  canon-like  gullies. 
In  the  narrow  ravines,  closed  in  by  barren,  sun- 
baked walls,  the  hot  air  stood  still  and  sultry; 
the  only  living  things  were  the  rattlesnakes, 
and  of  these  I  have  never  elsewhere  seen  so 
many.  Some  basked  in  the  sun,  stretched  out 
at  their  ugly  length  of  mottled  brown  and  yel- 
low. Others  lay  half  under  stones  or  twined 

[74] 


THE  HORSE  AND  THE  GUN 

in  the  roots  of  the  sage-brush,  and  looked 
straight  at  me  with  that  strange,  sullen,  evil 
gaze,  never  shifting  or  moving,  that  is  the 
property  only  of  serpents  and  of  certain  men; 
while  one  or  two  coiled  and  rattled  menacingly 
as  I  stepped  near." 

Fit  setting,  that  kind  of  a  landscape,  for  a 
man  who  had  come  out  of  the  sort  of  fight  he 
had  just  been  in,  and  lost.  Many  of  those  who 
had  fought  with  him  went  out  of  the  Republi- 
can party  and  did  not  return.  Roosevelt  had 
it  out  with  the  bucking  bronchos  on  his  ranch 
and  with  the  grizzlies  in  the  mountains,  and 
came  back  to  fight  in  the  ranks  for  the  man 
he  had  opposed  and  to  go  down  with  him  to 
defeat.  He  had  come  to  the  bitter  waters  of 
which  men  must  drink  to  grow  to  their  full 
stature — his  most  ambitious  defeat,  that  of 
the  Mayoralty  campaign  of  1886,  was  yet  to 
come— and,  according  to  his  sturdy  way,  he 
looked  the  well  through  and  through,  and 
drank  deep. 

There  stands  upon  a  shelf  in  my  library  a 
copy  of  the  "  Wilderness  Hunter,"  which  he 
gave  me  when  once  I  was  going  to  the  woods. 
On  the  fly-leaf  he  wrote:  "  May  you  enjoy  the 

[75] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

north  woods  as  much  as  I  enjoyed  the  great 
plains  and  the  Rockies."  It  was  during  that 
fall  that  I  received  the  first  news  from  him,  up 
there  in  the  Canadian  wilderness,  of  the  sad  and 
terrible  doings  at  Buffalo,  when  William 
McKinley  was  already  in  his  grave.  I  read  in 
that  letter  that  had  been  waiting  many  days  for 
our  canoe  to  come  down  the  lake,  even  though 
he  wrote  hopefully  of  the  President's  recovery ; 
that  a  shadow  had  fallen  across  his  path,  be- 
tween him  and  those  youthful  days,  through 
which  he  would  never  cross  again  the  same  man. 
He  was  himself  going  away  to  the  woods,  he 
wrote,  with  the  children.  The  doctors  had  as- 
sured him  all  was  well.  There  was  even  a  note 
of  glad  relief  that  the  dreadful  suspense  was 
over.  Yet  with  it  all  there  was  a  something, 
undefinable,  that  told  me  that  the  chase  he  loved 
so  well,  the  free  wild  life  of  the  plain,  had  lost 
one  that  understood  them  as  few  did;  and  the 
closing  words  of  the  preface  of  the  book,  on 
which  the  ink  of  his  name  was  hardly  yet  dry, 
sounded  to  me  like  saddening  prophecy: 

"  No  one  but  he  who  has  partaken  thereof 
can  understand  the  keen  delight  of  hunting  in 
lonely  lands.  For  him  is  the  joy  of  the  horse 

[76] 


THE  HORSE  AND   THE   GUN 

well  ridden  and  the  rifle  well  held ;  for  him  the 
long  days  of  toil  and  hardship,  resolutely  en- 
dured, and  crowned  at  the  end  with  triumph. 
In  after  years  there  shall  come  forever  to  his 
mind  the  memory  of  endless  prairies  shimmer- 
ing in  the  bright  sun ;  of  vast  snow-clad  wastes 
lying  desolate  under  gray  skies ;  of  the  melan- 
choly marshes ;  of  the  rush  of  mighty  rivers ; 
of  the  breath  of  the  evergreen  forest  in  sum- 
mer ;  of  the  crooning  of  ice-armored  pines  at  the 
touch  of  the  winds  of  winter ;  of  cataracts  roar- 
ing between  hoary  mountain  masses ;  of  all  the 
innumerable  sights  and  sounds  of  the  wilder- 
ness ;  of  its  immensity  and  mystery ;  and  of  the 
silences  that  brood  in  its  still  depths." 

So  all  things  pass.  To  the  careless  youth 
succeeds  the  man  of  the  grave  responsibilities. 
He  would  not  have  it  different,  himself.  But 
out  there,  there  are  men  to-day  who  cannot 
forgive  the  White  House  for  the  loss  of  the 
ranch ;  who  camp  nightly  about  forgotten  fires 
with  their  lost  friend,  the  hunter  and  ranch- 
man, Theodore  Roosevelt. 

When  the  world  was  young  he  came  among 
them  and  straightway  took  their  hearts  by 
storm,  as  did  they  his,  men  "  hardy  and  self- 

[77] 


THEODORE  .ROOSEVELT 

reliant,  with  bronzed,  set  faces  and  keen  eyes 
that  look  all  the  world  straight  in  the  face  with- 
out flinching."  I  know  how  it  is.  You  can- 
not help  taking  to  them,  those  Western  fel- 
lows, and  they  need  not  be  cowboys  either. 
The  farther  you  go,  the  better  you  like  them. 
My  oldest  son,  who  spent  a  year  on  a  ranch, 
never  wanted  to  come  back.  He  was  among 
Roosevelt's  men,  whose  talk  was  still  of  his 
good-fellowship  in  camp  and  on  the  hunting 
trail,  his  unflinching  courage,  his  even-handed 
justice  that  arraigned  the  sheriff  of  the  county 
as  stoutly  before  his  fellows  when  he  failed  in 
his  duty,  as  it  led  him  in  the  bitter  winter  wea- 
ther on  a  month's  hunt  down-stream  through 
the  pack-ice  after  cattle  thieves — a  story  that 
reads  like  the  record  of  an  Arctic  expedition. 
But  he  got  the  thieves,  and  landed  them  in  jail, 
much  to  the  wonderment  of  the  ranchman  at 
Killdeer  Mountains,  who  was  unable  to  under- 
stand why  all  this  fuss  "  instead  of  hanging 
them  offhand."  The  vigilantes  had  just  had 
a  cleaning  up  in  the  cattle  country,  and  had 
despatched  some  sixty-odd  suspects,  some  of 
them,  Mr.  Roosevelt  says,  through  misappre- 
hension or  carelessness.  One  is  reminded  of 

[78] 


THE  HORSE  AND  THE   GUN 

the  apology  of  the  captain  of  such  a  band  to 
the  widow  of  a  victim  of  their  "  carelessness  "; 
"  Madam,  the  joke  is  on  us." 

Every  land  has  its  ways.  They  have  theirs 
out  there,  and  if  they  are  sometimes  a  trifle 
hasty,  life  bowls  along  with  them  at  a  pace  we 
do  not  easily  catch  up  with.  On  his  recent 
trip  across  the  continent,  the  President  was 
greeted  in  a  distant  State  .by  one  of  his  old 
men,  temporarily  out  of  his  latitude.  He  ex- 
plained that  he  had  had  "  a  difficulty  ";  he  had 
"  sat  into  a  poker  game  with  a  gentleman 
stranger,"  who  raised  a  row.  He  used  awful 
language,  and  he,  the  speaker,  shot  him  down. 
He  had  to. 

"  And  did  the  stranger  draw? "  asked  the 
President,  who  had  been  listening  gravely. 

"  He  did  not  have  time,  sir." 

The  affair  with  the  sheriff  sounds  as  though 
it  were  a  chapter  of  Mulberry  Street  in  his 
later  years.  It  was  the  outcome  of  the  struggle 
to  put  law  and  order  in  the  place  of  the  rude 
lynch  justice  of  the  frontier.  There  was  rea- 
son to  believe  that  the  sheriff  leaned  toward 
the  outlaws.  Men  talked  of  it  in  bar-rooms; 
the  cattle-thieves  escaped.  A  meeting  was 

[79] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

called  of  ranch-owners,  the  neighbors  for  half 
a  hundred  miles  around,  and  in  the  meeting 
Mr.  Roosevelt  rose  and  confronted  the  sheriff 
squarely  with  the  charges.  He  looked  straight 
at  him  through  his  gold-rimmed  eye-glasses, 
himself  unarmed,  while  from  the  other's 
pockets  stuck  out  the  handles  of  two  big  six- 
shooters,  and  told  him  without  mincing  words 
that  they  believed  the  charges  to  be  true  and 
that  he  had  forfeited  their  confidence  and  good 
will.  A  score  of  grave  frontiersmen  sat  si- 
lently expectant  of  the  reply.  None  came. 
The  man  made  no  defense.  But  he  was  not 
without  sympathizers,  and  his  reputation  would 
have  made  most  men  think  twice  before  beard- 
ing him  as  Roosevelt  did.  I  asked  him  once 
why  he  did  it. 

"  There  was  no  other  way,"  he  said,  "  and 
it  had  exactly  the  effect  we  desired.  I  do 
not  think  I  was  in  any  danger.  I  was  unarmed, 
and  if  he  had  shot  me  down  he  knew  he  could 
not  have  escaped  swift  retribution.  Besides, 
I  was  right,  and  he  knew  it!  " 

How  often  since  have  I  heard  him  weigh, 
with  the  most  careful  scrutiny  of  every  argu- 
ment for  and  against,  some  matter  to  be  de- 

[80] 


AND  THE  GUN 

cided  in  the  public  interest,  and  wind  up  with 
the  brisk  "  There  is  no  other  way,  and  it  is 
right;  we  will  do  it;"  and  heard  his  critics, 
who  had  given  the  matter  no  attention  or  the 
most  superficial,  and  were  taking  no  risks,  cry 
out  about  snap  judgments,  while  Roosevelt 
calmly  went  ahead  and  brought  us  through. 

Whether  it  was  over  this  cattle  matter  or 
some  other  local  concern  that  his  misunder- 
standing with  the  Marquis  de  Mores  arose,  of 
which  there  have  been  so  many  versions,  I  have 
forgotten.  It  does  not  matter.  In  the  nature 
of  tilings  it  would  have  come  sooner  or  later, 
on  some  pretext  or  another.  The  two  were 
neighbors,  their  ranches  being  some  ten  or  fif- 
teen miles  apart.  The  Marquis  was  a  gallant 
but  exaggerated  Frenchman,  with  odd  feudal 
notions  still  clinging  in  his  brain.  He  took  it 
into  his  head  to  be  offended  by  something 
Roosevelt  was  reported  to  have  said,  before  he 
had  yet  met  him,  and  wrote  him  a  curt  note 
telling  him  what  he  had  heard  and  that  "  there 
was  a  way  for  gentlemen  to  settle  their  differ- 
ences," to  which  he  invited  his  attention.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  promptly  replied  that  he  had  heard 
a  lie;  that  he,  the  Marquis,  had  no  business  to 

[81] 


THEODORE.  ROOSEVELT 

believe»it  true  upon  such  evidence,  and  that  he 
would  follow  his  note  in  person  within  the  hour. 
He  despatched  the  letter  to  Medora,  where  the 
Marquis  was,  by  one  of  his  men,  and,  true  to 
his  word,  started  himself  immediately  after. 
Before  he  came  in  sight  of  the  little  cow-town 
he  was  met  by  a  courier  traveling  in  haste  from 
the  Marquis  with  a  gentleman's  apology  and 
a  cordial  invitation  to  dine  with  him  in  town. 
And  that  was  all  there  was  of  the  sensational 
"  duel  "  with  the  French  nobleman. 

How  small  this  world  is,  to  be  sure,  that  we 
make  so  much  of!  It  was  only  yesterday  that 
a  woman  whom  I  had  never  seen  spoke  to  me 
on  a  Third  Avenue  street-car  and  told  me  that 
she  had  been  in  the  house  of  the  Marquis  de 
Mores  at  that  very  time.  She  was  with  the 
family  as  a  trained  nurse,  she  told  me.  Of 
course  she  knew  Roosevelt.  "  The  cowboys 
loved  him,"  she  said,  and  added:  "  Poor  Mar- 
quis, he  was  a  nice  gentleman,  but  he  was  not 
so  level-headed  a  man  as  Mr.  Roosevelt." 

The  physical  vigor  for  which  he  had  longed 
and  labored  had  come  to  him  in  full  measure 
now,  and  with  it  the  confidence  that  comes  of 
being  prepared  to  defend  one's  rights.  The 

[82] 


THE  HORSE  AND  THE  GUN 

bully  and  the  brawler  knew  well  enough  that 
they  had  small  chance  against  such  an  equip- 
ment, and  kept  out  of  the  way.  In  all  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  life  on  the  frontier,  sometimes  in 
unfamiliar  towns  keyed  up  to  mischief,  he  was 
molested  but  once,  and  then  by  a  drunken 
rowdy  who  took  him  for  a  tenderfoot  and  with 
a  curse  bade  him  treat,  at  the  point  of  his  two 
revolvers,  enforcing  the  invitation  with  a  lit- 
tle exhibition  of  "  gun-play,"  while  a  roomful 
of  men  looked  stolidly  on.  Roosevelt  was  a 
stranger  in  the  town  and  had  no  friends  there. 
He  got  up  apparently  to  yield  to  the  inevitable, 
practicing  over  mentally  the  while  a  famous 
left-hander  that  had  done  execution  in  the  old 
Harvard  days.  The  next  instant  the  bully 
crashed  against  the  wall  and  measured  his 
length  on  the  floor.  His  pistols  went  off 
harmlessly  in  the  air.  He  opened  his  eyes  to 
find  the  "  four-eyed  tenderfoot  "  standing  over 
him,  bristling  with  fight,  while  the  crowd  nod- 
ded calmly,  "  Served  him  right."  He  surren- 
dered then  and  there  and  gave  up  his  guns, 
while  Mr.  Roosevelt  went  to  bed  unmolested. 
Such  things  carry  far  on  the  plains.  No  one 
was  ever  after  that  heard  to  express  a  wish  to 

[83] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fill  this  tenderfoot  "  full  of  holes,"  even  though 
he  did  wear  gold  spectacles  and  fringed  angora 
"  chaps  "  when  on  a  hunt. 

And  now  that  I  have  made  use  of  my  priv- 
ilege to  put  things  in  as  I  think  of  them,  let 
me  say  that  brawling  was  no  part  of  his  life  in 
the  West.  I  thought  of  it  first  partly  because  of 
some  good  people  who  imagine  that  there  was 
nothing  else  on  the  frontier;  partly  because  it 
was  a  test  the  frontier  life  put  to  a  man,  always 
does,  that  he  shall  not  be  afraid,  seeing  that  in 
the  last  instance  upon  his  personal  fearlessness 
depends  his  fitness  to  exist  where  at  any  mo- 
ment that  alone  may  preserve  his  life  and  the 
lives  of  others.  There  was  room  in  plenty  for 
that  quality  in  the  real  business  that  brought 
him  West,  the  quest  of  adventure.  It  was  the 
dream  of  the  man  with  the  horse  and  the  gun 
that  was  at  last  being  realized.  There  was  yet  a 
frontier ;  there  were  unknown  wilds.  The  very 
country  on  the  Little  Missouri  where  he  built 
his  log  house  was  almost  untrodden  to  the 
north  of  him.  Deer  lay  in  the  brush  in  the 
open  glade  where  the  house  stood,  and  once 
he  shot  one  from  his  door.  The  fencing  in  of 
cattle  lands  had  not  begun.  The  buffalo 

[84] 


THE   HORSE  AND   THE   GUN 

grazed  yet  in  scattered  bands  in  the  mountain 
recesses  far  from  beaten  trails;  the  last  great 
herd  on  the  plains  had  been  slaughtered,  but 
five  years  later  Mr.  Roosevelt  tracked  an  old 
bull  and  his  family  of  cows  and  calves  in  the 
wilderness  on  the  Wisdom  River  near  where 
Idaho,  Wyoming,  and  Montana  come  together. 
He  trailed  them  all  day  and  at  last  came  upon 
them  in  a  glade  shut  in  by  dark  pines.  As 
he  gazed  upon  the  huge,  shaggy  beasts,  behind 
which  towered  the  mountains,  their  crests  crim- 
soned by  the  sinking  sun,  there  mingled  with 
the  excitement  of  the  hunter  a  "  half -melan- 
choly feeling  at  the  thought  that  they  were  the 
last  remnant  of  a  doomed  and  nearly  vanished 
race."  It  did  not  prevent  him,  however,  from 
eating  the  grilled  meat  of  the  old  bull  that 
night  at  the  camp-fire,  with  a  hungry  hunter's 
relish.  The  great  head  of  the  mighty  beast 
hangs  over  the  fire-place  at  Sagamore  Hill, 
an  object  of  shuddering  awe  to  the  little  ones. 
None  of  them  will  in  their  day  ever  bring  home 
such  a  trophy  from  the  hunt. 

I  looked  past  it  into  the  room  where  the  piano 
stands,  the  other  day,  and  saw  two  of  them 
there,  Ethel  giving  Archie,  with  the  bewitching 

[85] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

bangs  and  the  bare  brown  boyish  legs,  his  music 
lesson.  One  groping  foot — for  the  lesson 
would  n't  come — dangled  within  reach  of  the 
ugliest  grizzly's  head  a  distorted  fancy  could 
conceive  of.  I  know  it,  for  I  stumble  over  it 
regularly  when  I  come  there,  until  I  have  got 
it  charted  for  that  particular  trip.  The  skin 
to  which  it  is  attached  is  one  Mr.  Roosevelt  sets 
great  store  by.  It  is  a  memento  of  the  most 
thrilling  moment  of  his  life,  when  he  was  hunt- 
ing alone  in  the  foothills  of  the  Rockies.  He 
had  made  his  camp  "  by  the  side  of  a  small, 
noisy  brook  with  crystal  water,"  and  had 
strolled  off  with  his  rifle  to  see  if  he  could  pick 
up  a  grouse  for  supper,  when  he  came  upon  the 
grizzly  and  wounded  it.  It  took  refuge  in  a 
laurel  thicket,  where  Roosevelt  laid  siege  to 
it.  While  he  was  cautiously  skirting  the  edge, 
peering  in,  in  the  gathering  dusk,  the  bear 
suddenly  came  out  on  the  hillside:  "  Scarlet 
strings  of  froth  hung  from  his  lips;  his  eyes 
burned  like  embers  in  the  gloom." 

Roosevelt  fired,  and  the  bullet  shattered  the 
point  of  the  grizzly's  heart.  "  Instantly  the 
great  bear  turned  with  a  harsh  roar  of  fury 
and  challenge,  blowing  the  bloody  foam  from 

[86] 


THE  HORSE  AND   THE  GUN 

his  mouth,  so  that  I  saw  the  gleam  of  his  white 
fangs;  and  then  he  charged  straight  at  me, 
crashing  and  bounding  through  the  laurel 
bushes,  so  that  it  was  hard  to  aim.  I  waited 
until  he  came  to  a  fallen  tree,  raking  him  as 
he  topped  it  with  a  ball  which  entered  his  chest 
and  went  through  the  cavity  of  his  body,  but 
he  neither  swerved  nor  flinched,  and  at  the 
moment  I  did  not  know  that  I  had  struck  him. 
He  came  steadily  on,  and  in  another  second 
was  almost  upon  me.  I  fired  for  his  forehead, 
but  my  bullet  went  low,  entering  his  open 
mouth,  smashing  his  lower  jaw,  and  going  into 
his  neck.  I  leaped  to  one  side  almost  as  I 
pulled  the  trigger,  and  through  the  hanging 
smoke  the  first  thing  I  saw  was  his  paw  as  he 
made  a  vicious  side  blow  at  me.  The  rush  of  his 
charge  carried  him  past.  As  he  struck,  he 
lurched  forward,  leaving  a  pool  of  bright  blood 
where  his  muzzle  hit  the  ground;  but  he  re- 
covered himself,  and  made  two  or  three  jumps 
onwards,  while  I  hurriedly  jammed  a  couple  of 
cartridges  into  the  magazine — my  rifle  holding 
only  four,  all  of  which  I  had  fired.  Then  he 
tried  to  pull  up,  but  as  he  did  so  his  muscles 
seemed  suddenly  to  give  way,  his  head  drooped, 

[87] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  he  rolled  over  and  over  like  a  shot  rabbit. 
Each  of  my  first  three  bullets  had  inflicted  a 
mortal  wound." 

That  was  hunting  of  the  kind  that  calls  for  a 
stout  heart.  When  I  think  of  it,  there  comes 
to  me  by  contrast  the  echo  of  the  laugh  we  had, 
when  he  lay  with  his  Rough-Riders  at  Mon- 
tauk  Point,  over  my  one  unlucky  experience 
with  a  "  silver-tip."  I  have  a  letter  yet,  dated 
Camp  WikofF,  Montauk,  September  9,  1898, 
in  which  he  has  scribbled  after  the  business  on 
hand,  an  added  note:  "Good  luck  on  your 
hunt!  Death  to  grizzly-bear  cubs."  I  can 
hear  his  laugh  now.  I  am  not  a  mighty  hunter, 
but  I  know  a  bear  when  I  see  it — at  least  so  I 
thought — and  when,  wandering  in  the  forest 
primeval,  far  from  camp,  with  only  a  fowling- 
piece,  I  beheld  a  movement  in  the  top  of  a  big 
pine,  I  had  no  difficulty  in  making  out  a  bear- 
cub  there  with  the  last  rays  of  the  sun  silvering 
the  tip  of  its  brief  tail — a  "  silver-tip  "  then; 
and  likewise  my  knowledge  of  the  world  in 
general,  if  not  of  wood-craft,  told  me  that 
where  the  cub  was  the  mamma  bear  would  not 
be  far  away.  It  was  therefore,  I  insist,  proof 
of  fearless  courage  that  I  deliberately  shot 

[88] 


THE  HORSE  AND   THE   GUN 

down  the  cub  with  one  of  my  two  No.  12  car- 
tridges, even  if  I  made  great  haste  to  pick  it 
up  and  carry  it  away  before  Madam  Bruin 
should  appear.  It  is  all  right  to  be  bold,  but 
when  it  comes  to  maddened  she-bears —  I 
made  a  wild  grab  for  my  cub,  and  had  my  hand 
impaled  upon  a  hundred  porcupine  quills.  It 
was  that  kind  of  a  cub.  It  is  well  enough  to 
laugh,  but  it  took  me  a  little  while  before  I 
could  join  in,  with  all  those  quills  sticking  in 
my  fist,  just  like  so  many  barbed  fish-hooks. 

I  remember  we  shot  together  once  at  the 
range,  and  that  I  made  nearly  as  good  a  score 
as  he.  It  was  in  the  beginning  of  our  ac- 
quaintance, when  I  had  been  staying  at  Saga- 
more Hill  and  the  question  was  put  by  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  at  the  breakfast-table  whether  I 
would  rather  go  driving  with  her  or  "go  with 
Theodore  on  the  range."  And  I  remember 
the  perfidious  smile  with  which  he  repeated  the 
question,  as  if  he  should  be  so  glad  to  have  me 
go  driving  when  he  really  wanted  to  try  the 
new  rifle  on  the  range.  He  cannot  dissemble 
worth  a  cent,  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  laughed  and 
sent  us  away,  to  my  great  relief;  for  going 
driving  with  her  is  a  privilege  one  might  well 

[89] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

be  proud  of,  and  I— well,  we  had  looked  at 
the  rifle  together  the  night  before.  Really, 
it  is  no  use  for  me  to  try,  either. 

But  about  the  score;  that  was  shooting  at  a 
target.  Hitting  a  running  animal  is  a  differ- 
ent story,  as  I  know  to  my  sorrow.  Though 
Mr.  Roosevelt  is  near-sighted  and  wears 
glasses,  and  though  his  hand,  he  says  himself, 
is  none  too  steady,  yet  he  has  acquired  a  very 
formidable  reputation  as  a  hunter,  and  this, 
he  adds  with  characteristic  touch,  because  he 
has  "  hunted  very  perseveringly,  and  by  much 
practice  has  learned  to  shoot  about  as  well  at 
a  wild  animal  as  at  a  target."  It  is  the  story 
of  everything  he  undertook:  his  opportunities 
were  in  nothing  unusually  great,  except  in  his 
marvelous  mastery  over  his  own  mind,  his  rare 
faculty  of  concentration;  sometimes  he  was  at 
a  clear  disadvantage,  as  in  the  matter  of  physi- 
cal strength  and  promise  at  the  outset;  yet  he 
won  by  sheer  perseverance.  He  has  killed  in 
his  day  every  kind  of  large  game  to  be  found 
on  the  North  American  continent. 

The  "  horse  and  the  gun  "  were  having  their 
day.  And  while  he  hunted,  with  the  instinct 
of  the  naturalist,  who  lets  nothing  escape  that 

[90] 


THE  HORSE  AND  THE  GUN 

can  contribute  to  our  knowledge  of  the  world 
about  us,  he  made  notes  of  the  habits  and  habi- 
tats of  the  game  he  hunted.  His  hunting- 
books  have  been  extensively  quoted  by  the  sci- 
entific periodicals.  Which  brings  to  my  mind 
another  Presidential  sportsman  who  occasion- 
ally makes  notes  of  his  exploits  with  the  rod. 
He  will  forgive  me  for  telling  of  it,  for  never 
did  man  draw  a  clearer  picture  of  himself  than 
did  Mr.  Cleveland  when  over  the  dinner-table 
in  a  friend's  house  he  told  the  story  of  the  egg 
the  neighbor's  hen  laid  in  his  yard.  We  had 
been  discussing  the  way  of  conscience — whe- 
ther it  was  born  in  men,  or  whether  it  grew,  and 
he  supported  his  belief  that  it  was  born  with 
the  child  by  telling  of  how  when  he  was  a  little 
chap  the  hen  made  the  mistake  aforesaid. 

"I  could  n't  have  been  over  five  or  six  at 
most,"  said  Mr.  Cleveland,  "  but  I  remember 
the  awful  row  I  made  until  they  brought  back 
that  egg  to  the  side  of  the  fence  where  it  be- 
longed." 

That  was  Grover  Cleveland,  sure  enough. 
My  own  conscience  suffered  twinges  he  knew 
not  of  during  the  recital,  for  I  also  had  an  egg 
to  my  account,  but  on  the  other  side  of  the 

[91] 


THEODORE,  ROOSEVELT 

ledger,  though  it  was  never  laid.  I  remem- 
bered well  the  half  of  an  idle  forenoon  I  spent, 
when  I  was  nearer  fifteen  than  five,  treacher- 
ously trying  to  decoy  my  neighbor's  hen  across 
the  fence  to  lay  her  egg  in  my  yard.  The  door- 
knob I  polished  a  most  alluring  white  and  hid 
in  some  hay  for  a  nest-egg,  and  the  trail  of 
corn  I  made — they  all  rose  up  and  spurned  me. 
Who  says  the  world  is  not  getting  better? 
Look  upon  this  picture  and  upon  that.  No  one 
would  ever  think  of  making  me  President. 
And  when  I  thought  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  proba- 
ble action  with  the  hen  cackling  on  his  side  of 
the  fence,  who  can  doubt  that  he  would  return 
the  egg  with  a  stern  reprimand  to  its  owner 
not  to  lead  his  neighbor  into  temptation  again  ? 
Mr.  Cleveland  might  have  registered  the 
weight  of  the  egg  before  returning  it ;  the  fish- 
erman would  not  be  denied.  Mr.  Roosevelt, 
had  the  hen  been  a  wild  fowl,  would  have  taken 
note  of  its  plumage  and  its  futile  habit  of  hid- 
ing its  nest  from  mankind,  even  righteous 
mankind. 

A  cat  may  look  at  a  king.  One  may  have  a 
joke  even  with  a  President.  I  know  they  won't 
mind.  They  are  two  men  alike  in  the  best 

[92] 


THE  HORSE  AND  THE  GUN 

there  is  in  man,  sturdy,  courageous,  splendid 
types  of  American  manhood,  however  they  dif- 
fer. And  though  they  do  differ,  Cleveland 
gave  Roosevelt  his  strongest  backing  in  the 
civil  service  fight,  while  the  younger  man  holds 
the  ex-President,  even  though  his  political  op- 
ponent, in  the  real  regard  in  which  one  true 
man  holds  another.  And  I  who  write  this  have 
had  the  good  luck  to  vote  for  them  both.  The 
Republic  is  all  right. 

But  I  was  speaking  just  now  of  the  western 
land  he  loved;  whether  in  the  spring,  when 
"  the  flowers  are  out  and  a  man  may  gallop 
for  miles  at  a  stretch  with  his  horse's  hoofs 
sinking  at  every  stride  into  the  carpet  of  prai- 
rie roses,  .  .  .  and  where  even  in  the  waste 
places  the  cactuses  are  blooming,  .  .  .  their 
mass  of  splendid  crimson  flowers  glowing 
against  the  sides  of  the  gray  buttes  like  a  splash 
of  flame  " ;  when  "  the  thickets  and  groves 
about  the  ranch  house  are  loud  with  bird 
music  from  before  dawn  till  long  after  sunrise 
and  all  through  the  night  " ;  or  in  the  hot  noon- 
tide hours  of  midsummer,  when  the  parched 
land  lies  shimmering  in  the  sunlight  and  "  from 
the  upper  branches  of  the  cottonwoods  comes 

[93] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

every  now  and  then  the  soft,  melancholy  coo- 
ing of  the  mourning  dove,  whose  voice  always 
seems  far  away  and  expresses  more  than  any 
other  sound  in  nature  the  sadness  of  gentle, 
hopeless,  never-ending  grief.'  The  other  birds 
are  still.  .  .  .  Now  and  then  the  black  shadow 
of  a  wheeling  vulture  falls  on  the  sun-scorched 
ground;  the  cattle  that  have  strung  down  in 
long  files  from  the  hills  lie  quietly  on  the  sand- 
bars." Whether  in  the  bright  moonlight  that 
"  turns  the  gray  buttes  into  glimmering  silver, 
the  higher  cliffs  standing  out  in  weird  gro- 
tesqueness  while  the  deep  gorges  slumber  in 
the  black  shadows,  the  echoing  hoof -beats  of 
the  horses  and  the  steady  metallic  clank  of  the 
steel  bridle-chains  the  only  sounds  " ;  or  when 
the  gales  that  blow  out  of  the  north  have 
wrapped  the  earth  in  a  mantle  of  death ;  when 
"in  the  still,  merciless,  terrible  cold  ...  all 
the  land  is  like  granite;  the  great  rivers  stand 
in  their  beds  as  if  turned  to  frosted  steel.  In 
the  long  nights  there  is  no  sound  to  break  the 
lifeless  silence.  Under  the  ceaseless,  shifting 
play  of  the  Northern  Lights  the  snow-clad 
plains  stretch  out  into  dead  and  endless  wastes 
of  glimmering  white." 

[94] 


THE  HORSE  AND  THE  GUN 

So  he  saw  it,  and  so  he  loved  it ;  loved  it  when 
the  work  was  hard  and  dangerous ;  when  on  the 
ranchman's  occasional  holiday  he  lay  stretched 
before  the  blazing  log-fire  reading  Shake- 
speare to  the  cowboys  and  eliciting  the  patro- 
nizing comment  from  one  who  followed  bron- 
cho-busting as  a  trade,  that  "  that  'ere  feller 
Shakespeare  saveyed  human  nature  some." 
Loved  the  land  and  loved  its  people,  as  they 
loved  him,  a  man  among  men.  He  has  drawn 
a  picture  of  them  in  his  "  Ranch  Life  and  the 
Hunting  Trail,"  from  which  I  have  quoted, 
that  will  stand  as  a  monument  to  them  in  the 
days  that  are  to  come  when  they  shall  be  no 
more.  In  that  day  we  will  value,  too,  the  book, 
as  a  marvelous  picture  of  a  vanished  day. 

"  To  appreciate  properly  his  fine,  manly 
qualities,  the  wild  rough-rider  of  the  plains 
should  be  seen  in  his  own  home.  There  he 
passes  his  days;  there  he  does  his  life-work; 
there,  when  he  meets  death,  he  faces  it  as  he 
faces  many  other  evils,  with  quiet,  uncom- 
plaining fortitude.  Brave,  hospitable,  hardy 
and  adventurous,  he  is  the  grim  pioneer  of  our 
race;  he  prepares  the  way  for  the  civilization 
from  before  whose  face  he  must  himself  dis- 

[95] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

appear.  Hard  and  dangerous  though  his  ex- 
istence is,  it  has  yet  a  wild  attraction  that 
strongly  draws  to  it  his  bold,  free  spirit.  He 
lives  in  the  lonely  land  where  mighty  rivers 
twist  in  long  reaches  between  the  barren  bluffs ; 
where  the  prairies  stretch  out  into  billowy 
plains  of  waving  grass,  girt  only  by  the  blue 
horizon— plains  across  whose  endless  breadth 
he  can  steer  his  course  for  days  and  weeks,  and 
see  neither  man  to  speak  to  nor  hill  to  break 
the  level;  where  the  glory  and  the  burning 
splendor  of  the  sunsets  kindle  the  blue  vault 
of  heaven  and  the  level  brown  earth  till  they 
merge  together  in  an  ocean  of  flaming  fire." 

Working  there,  resting  there,  growing  there, 
in  that  wonderland  under  the  spell  of  which 
these  words  of  his  were  written,  there  came  to 
him,  unheralded,  the  trumpet  call  to  another 
life,  to  duty.  Over  the  camp-fire  he  read  in  a 
newspaper  sent  on  from  New  York  that  by 
a  convention  of  independent  citizens  he  had 
been  chosen  as  their  standard-bearer  in  the 
fight  for  the  mayoralty,  then  impending.  They 
needed  a  leader.  And  that  night  he  hung  up 
the  rifle,  packed  his  trunk,  and,  bidding  his 
life  on  the  plains  good-by,  started  for  the  East. 

[96] 


V 
THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 


V 

THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

r  |  VHE  citizens  had  picked  Roosevelt  be- 
cause they  needed  a  young  man  with 
JL  fighting  grit,  a  man  with  a  name  to 
trust,  a  Republican  who  was  not  afraid — of 
the  machine  for  one  thing.  The  machine  took 
him  because  there  was  nothing  else  left  for  it 
to  do,  and  it  did  that.  The  thing  has  happened 
since:  evidence  that  there  is  life  in  our  theory 
and  practice  of  government.  When  such 
things  cease  to  happen,  popular  government 
will  not  be  much  more  than  a  name.  The  ma- 
chine is  useful — indeed,  it  is  indispensable — as 
a  thing  to  be  run  for  a  purpose.  When  the 
purpose  becomes  merely  the  running  of  the 
machine,  however  perfect  that,  the  soul  is  gone 
out  of  it.  And  without  a  soul  a  man  or  a  party 
is  dead. 

[99] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Something  had  occurred  in  New  York  fit 
almost  to  wake  the  dead.  Henry  George  had 
been  nominated  for  Mayor,  and  the  world  that 
owned  houses  and  lands  and  stocks  was  in  a 
panic.  The  town  was  going  to  be  sacked,  at 
the  very  least.  And,  in  wild  dread  of  the  dis- 
aster that  was  coming,  men  forsook  party, 
principles,  everything,  and  threw  themselves 
into  the  arms  of  Tammany,  as  babies  run  in 
fear  of  the  bogy  man  and  hide  their  heads  in 
their  mother's  lap.  Nice  mother,  Tammany! 
— even  with  Abram  S.  Hewitt  as  its  candi- 
date. He  lived  to  subscribe  to  that  statement. 
I  have  sometimes  wondered  what  the  town 
thought  of  itself  when  it  came  to,  and  con- 
sidered Henry  George  as  he  really  was.  I 
know  what  Roosevelt  thought  of  it.  He 
laughed,  rather  contemptuously,  married,  and 
went  abroad,  glad  of  his  holiday. 

But  he  had  contributed  something  to  that 
campaign  that  had  life  in  it.  Long  years  after 
it  bore  fruit ;  but  at  that  time  I  suppose  people 
shrugged  their  shoulders  at  it,  and  ran  on  to 
their  haven  of  refuge.  It  was  just  two  para- 
graphs in  his  letter  of  acceptance  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  One  Hundred,  the  briefest  of  that 
kind  of  documents  I  ever  saw. 

[1001 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

"  The  worst  evils  that  affect  our  local  gov- 
ernment," he  wrote  to  R.  Fulton  Cutting  and 
his  colleagues  (even  the  names  sound  as  if  it 
were  yesterday,  not  nearly  twenty  years  ago), 
"  arise  from  and  are  the  inevitable  results  of  the 
mixing  up  of  city  affairs  with  the  party  poli- 
tics of  the  Nation  and  of  the  State.  The  lines 
upon  which  National  parties  divide  have  no 
necessary  connection  with  the  business  of  the 
city;  .  .  .  such  connection  opens  the  way  to 
countless  schemes  of  public  plunder  and  civic 
corruption.  I  very  earnestly  deprecate  all  at- 
tempts to  introduce  any  class  or  caste  feeling 
into  the  mayoralty  contest.  Laborers  and  cap- 
italists alike  are  interested  in  having  an  honest 
and  economical  city  government,  and  if  elected 
I  shall  certainly  strive  to  be  the  representative 
of  all  good  citizens,  paying  heed  to  nothing 
whatever  but  the  general  well-being." 

He  was  not  elected,  as  I  said.  We  were  not 
yet  grown  to  that.  Non-partisanship  in  mu- 
nicipal politics  was  a  poet's  dream,  nice  but  so 
unsubstantial.  It  came  true  all  the  same  in 
time,  and  it  will  stay  true  when  we  have  dozed 
off  a  few  times  more  and  been  roused  up 
with  the  Tammany  nightmare  astride  of  us. 
Maybe  then  my  other  dream  will  come  true, 

[101] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

too.  It  is  my  own,  and  I  have  never  told  even 
him  of  it ;  but  I  have  seen  stranger  things  hap- 
pen. It  is  this,  that  Theodore  Roosevelt  shall 
sit  in  the  City  Hall  in  New  York  as  Mayor  of 
his  own  city,  after  he  has  done  his  work  in 
Washington.  That  would  be  an  object-lesson 
worth  while,  one  we  need  and  that  would  show 
all  the  world  what  democracy  really  means.  I 
shall  never  be  satisfied  till  I  see  it.  That  year  I 
would  write  the  last  chapter  of  my  "  battle  with 
the  slum,"  and  in  truth  it  would  be  over.  For 
that  which  really  makes  the  slum  is  not  the 
foul  tenement,  not  the  pestilent  alley,  not  the 
want  and  ignorance  they  stand  for;  but  the 
other,  the  killing  ignorance  that  sits  in  ease  and 
plenty  and  knows  not  that  it  is  the  brother 
who  suffers,  and  that,  in  one  way  or  other,  he 
must  suffer  with  him  unless  he  will  suffer  for 
him.  Of  that  there  must  be  an  end.  Roosevelt 
in  the  City  Hall  could  mean  only  that. 

Witness  his  plea  in  the  letter  I  quoted: 
"  Laborers  and  capitalists  alike  are  interested." 
Of  course  they  are,  or  our  country  goes  to  the 
dogs.  In  that  day  we  shall  see  it,  all  of  us.  He 
saw  it  always.  When  I  hear  any  one  saj^  that 
Roosevelt  is  doing  this,  or  saying  that,  for  ef- 

[102] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

feet,  I  know  I  have  to  do  with  a  man  who 
does  not  read  or  reason;  or  he  would  have 
made  out  how  straight  has  been  his  course  from 
the  beginning.  What  he  said  then  to  the 
electors  of  New  York,  he  did  as  President 
when  he  appointed  the  Coal  Strike  Commis- 
sion, when  he  blocked  the  way  of  illegal  trust 
combinations,  and  when  he  killed  the  power 
of  "  pull  "  in  the  Police  Department  and  kept 
the  peace  of  the  city.  He  said  it  again  the 
other  day  in  his  Labor  Day  speech  at  Syracuse. 

"  They  will  say,  most  likely,  that  it  is  made 
up  of  platitudes,"  he  told  me  when  he  had  fin- 
ished it,  referring  to  his  newspaper  critics; 
"  and  so  I  suppose  it  is.  Only  they  need  to  be 
said  just  here  and  now." 

They  did  need  to.  The  Ten  Command- 
ments are  platitudes,  I  expect;  certainly  they 
have  been  repeated  often  enough.  And  yet 
even  the  critics  will  hardly  claim  that  we  have 
had  enough  of  them.  I  noticed,  by  the  way, 
that  they  were  dumb  for  once.  Perhaps  it  oc- 
curred to  them  that  it  took  a  kind  of  courage 
to  insist,  as  he  did,  on  the  elementary  virtues  in 
the  dealings  of  man  with  man  as  the  basis  of  all 
human  fellowship,  against  which  their  shafts 

[103] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fell  powerless.  If  so,  it  did  more  credit  to 
their  discernment  than  I  expected  ever  to  have 
to  accord  them. 

Two  years  of  travel  and  writing,  of  work- 
ing at  the  desk  and,  in  between,  on  the  ranch, 
where  the  cowboys  hailed  him  joyously;  of 
hunting  and  play  which  most  people  would 
have  called  hard  work ;  years  during  which  his 
"  Winning  of  the  West  "  took  shape  and  grew 
into  his  great  work.  Then,  in  the  third,  Wash- 
ington and  the  Civil  Service  Commission. 

I  suppose  there  is  scarcely  one  who  knows 
anything  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  who  has  not 
got  the  fact  of  his  being  once  a  Civil  Service 
Commissioner  fixed  in  his  mind.  That  was 
where  the  country  got  its  eye  upon  him;  and 
that,  likewise,  was  where  some  good  people 
grew  the  notion  that  he  was  a  scrapper  first, 
last,  and  all  the  time,  with  but  little  regard  for 
whom  he  tackled,  so  long  as  he  had  him.  There 
was  some  truth  in  that ;  we  shall  see  how  much. 
But  as  to  civil  service  reform,  I  have  some- 
times wondered  how  many  there  were  who  knew 
as  little  what  it  really  meant  as  I  did  until 
not  so  very  long  ago.  How  many  went  about 
with  a  more  or  less  vague  notion  that  it  was 

[104] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

some  kind  of  a  club  to  knock  out  spoils  politics 
with,  good  for  the  purpose  and  necessary,  but 
in  the  last  analysis  an  alien  kind  of  growth,  of 
aristocratic  tendency,  to  set  men  apart  in  classes. 
Instead  of  exactly  the  reverse,  right  down  on 
the  hard  pan  of  the  real  and  only  democracy: 
every  man  on  his  merits ;  what  he  is,  not  what  he 
has ;  what  he  can  do,  not  what  his  pull  can  do  for 
him.  And  do  you  know  what  first  shocked  me 
into  finding  out  the  truth?  I  have  to  own  it, 
if  it  does  make  me  blush  for  myself.  It  was 
when  I  saw  a  report  Roosevelt  had  made  on 
political  blackmail  in  the  New  York  Custom- 
House.  That  was  what  he  called  it,  and  it  was 
meaner  than  the  meanest,  he  added,  because 
it  hit  hardest  the  employees  who  did  n't  stand 
politically  with  the  party  in  power  and  were 
afraid  to  say  so  lest  they  lose  their  places. 
Three  per  cent,  of  his  salary,  to  a  clerk  just 
able  to  get  along,  might  mean  "  the  difference 
between  having  and  not  having  a  winter  coat 
for  himself,  a  warm  dress  for  his  wife,  or  a 
Christmas-tree  for  his  children — a  piece  of 
cruel  injustice  and  iniquity."  It  was  the 
Christmas-tree  that  settled  it  with  me.  The 
rest  was  bad,  but  I  could  n't  allow  that.  Not 

[105] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

with  my  Danish  pedigree  of  blessed  Christmas- 
trees  reaching  'way  back  into  the  day  of  frocks 
and  rag  dolls,  and  my  own  children's  tree  to  re- 
mind me  of  it — never! 

So  I  overcame  my  repugnance  to  schedules 
and  tables  and  examinations,  and  got  behind 
it  all  to  an  understanding  of  what  it  really 
meant.  And  there  I  found  the  true  view  of 
this  champion  of  civil  service  reform  as  I  might 
have  expected;  fighting  the  spoilsman,  yes! 
dragging  the  sting  from  his  kind  of  politics; 
hitting  him  blow  after  blow,  and  with  the  whole 
pack  of  politicians,  I  came  near  saying  good 
and  bad  together,  in  front  hitting  back  for  very 
life.  That  was  there,  aU  of  it.  But  this  other 
was  there  too:  the  man  who  was  determined 
that  the  fellow  with  no  pull  should  have  an  even 
chance  with  his  rival  who  came  backed;  that 
the  farmer's  lad  and  the  mechanic's  son  who 
had  no  one  to  speak  for  them  should  have  the 
same  show  in  competing  for  the  public  service 
as  the  son  of  wealth  and  social  prestige.  That 
was  really  what  civil  service  reform  meant  to 
Roosevelt.  The  other  was  good,  but  this  was 
the  kernel  of  it,  and  the  kernel  was  sound.  It 
was,  as  he  said  in  his  first  Presidential  mes- 

[106] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

sage,  "  as  democratic  and  American  as  the  com- 
mon-school system  itself." 

And  as  for  the  country's  end  of  it:  "  This  is 
my  rule,"  said  he,  speaking  of  it  at  the  time: 
"  if  I  am  in  such  doubt  about  an  applicant's 
character  and  fitness  for  office  as  would  lead  me 
not  to  put  my  private  affairs  in  his  hands,  then 
I  shall  not  put  public  affairs  in  his  hands." 
Simple  and  plain  enough,  is  it  not? 

For  all  that  they  called  it  a  "  first-class 
trouble  job  "  and  the  wise,  or  those  who  thought 
they  were  wise,  laughed  in  their  sleeves  when 
Roosevelt  tackled  it.  For  at  last  they  had  him 
where  he  would  be  killed  off  sure,  this  bump- 
tious young  man  who  had  got  in  the  way  of  the 
established  order  in  everything.  And  they 
wished  him  luck.  President  Harrison  was  in 
the  White  House,  well  disposed,  but  not  ex- 
actly a  sympathetic  court  of  appeals  for  a 
pleader  like  Roosevelt.  In  fact,  he  would  have 
removed  him  within  a  year  or  two  of  his  ap- 
pointment for  daring  to  lay  down  the  law  to 
a  Cabinet  officer,  had  it  been  expedient.  It 
was  not  expedient;  by  that  time  Theodore 
Roosevelt  had  made  his  own  court  of  appeals 
—the  country  and  public  opinion. 

[107] 


THEODORE,  ROOSEVELT 

Contrary  to  the  general  belief,  Roosevelt 
was  never  President  of  the  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission, though  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  think 
that  where  he  sat  was  the  head  of  the  table. 
Until  he  came  the  Board  had  been  in  hard 
luck.  Unpopular  everywhere,  it  had  tried  the 
ostrich  game  of  hiding  its  head,  hoping  so  to 
escape  observation  and  the  onset  of  its  enemies. 
Things  took  a  sudden  turn  with  Roosevelt  in 
the  Board.  He  was  there  to  do  a  work  he  thor- 
oughly believed  in,  that  was  one  thing.  In  the 
Legislature  of  New  York  he  had  forced 
through  a  civil  service  law  that  was  substan- 
tially the  same  as  he  was  here  set  to  enforce; 
hence  he  knew.  And  when  a  man  knows  a 
thing  and  believes  in  it,  and  it  is  the  right  thing 
to  do  anyway,  truly  "  thrice  armed  is  he." 
The  enemies  of  the  cause  found  it  out  quickly. 
For  every  time  they  struck,  the  Commission  hit 
back  twice.  Nor  was  the  new  Commissioner 
very  particular  where  he  hit,  so  long  as  the 
blow  told.  "  The  spectacle,"  wrote  Edward 
Cary  in  reviewing  his  work  when  it  was  done, 
"  of  a  man  holding  a  minor  and  rather  non- 
descript office,  politically  unimportant,  taking 
a  Cabinet  officer  by  the  neck  and  exposing  him 

[108] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

to  the  amused  contempt  of  all  honest  Ameri- 
cans, was  what  the  late  Horace  Greeley  would 
have  called  '  mighty  interesting.'  It  was  also 
very  instructive." 

It  was  that.  The  whole  country  took  an  in- 
terest in  the  show.  Politics  woke  right  up  and 
got  the  ear  of  the  White  House.  Mr.  Roose- 
velt respectfully  but  firmly  refused  to  back 
down.  He  wras  doing  his  sworn  duty  in  en- 
forcing the  law.  That  was  what  he  was  there 
for.  He  urged  his  reform  measures  once, 
twice,  three  times,  then  went  to  the  people, 
telling  them  all  about  it.  The  measures  went 
through.  Surveying  the  clamoring  crowd  that 
railed  at  him  and  his  work,  he  flung  this  chal- 
lenge to  them  in  an  address  in  the  Madison 
Street  Theater  in  Chicago  in  March,  1890,  the 
year  after  he  was  appointed : 

"  Every  ward  heeler  who  now  ekes  out  a  mis- 
erable existence  at  the  expense  of  office-holders 
and  candidates  is  opposed  to  our  policy,  and 
we  are  proud  to  acknowledge  it.  Every  poli- 
tician who  sees  nothing  but  reward  of  office 
in  the  success  of  a  party  or  a  principle  is  op- 
posed to  us,  and  we  are  not  sorry  for  it.  ... 
We  propose  to  keep  a  man  in  office  as  long  as 

[109] 


THEODORE  .ROOSEVELT 

he  serves  the  public  faithfully  and  courteously. 
.  .  .  We  propose  that  no  incumbent  shall  be 
dismissed  from  the  service  unless  he  proves  un- 
trustworthy or  incompetent,  and  that  no  one 
not  specially  qualified  for  the  duties  of  the  po- 
sition shall  be  appointed.  These  two  state- 
ments we  consider  eminently  practical  and 
American  in  principle." 

Again,  a  year  later,  when  the  well-worn  lies 
that  still  pass  current  in  certain  newspapers 
had  got  into  the  Senate,  this  was  his  answer : 

"  One  of  the  chief  false  accusations  which 
are  thrown  at  the  Commission  is  that  we  test 
applicants  by  puzzling  questions.  There  is  a 
certain  order  of  intellect — sometimes  an  order 
of  Senatorial  intellect — which  thinks  it  funny 
to  state  that  a  first-class  young  man,  thor- 
oughly qualified  in  every  respect,  has  been 
rejected  for  the  position  of  letter-carrier  be- 
cause he  was  unable  to  tell  the  distance  from 
Hongkong  to  the  mouth  of  the  Yangtsekiang, 
or  answer  questions  of  similar  nature. 

"  I  now  go  through  a  rather  dreary,  monot- 
onous illustration  of  how  this  idea  becomes 
current.  A  Senator,  for  instance,  makes  state- 
ments of  that  character.  I  then  write  to  him, 

[110] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

and  ask  him  his  foundation  for  such  an  asser- 
tion. Presumably,  he  never  receives  my  letter, 
for  he  never  answers  it.  I  write  him  again, 
with  no  better  results.  I  then  publish  a  contra- 
diction in  the  newspapers.  Then  some  enter- 
prising correspondent  interviews  him,  and  he 
states  the  question  is  true,  but  it  is  below  his 
dignity  to  reply  to  Mr.  Roosevelt.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  either  does  know  or  ought  to  know 
that  no  such  question  has  ever  been  asked." 

I  wonder  now,  does  any  one  of  the  editors 
who  loudly  wail  over  the  "  weak  surrender  " 
of  the  President,  these  days,  to  malign  forces 
of  their  imagination,  really  believe  that  of  the 
man  who  single-handed  bade  defiance  to  the 
whole  executive  force  of  the  Government, 
when  the  knowledge  that  he  was  right  was  his 
only  weapon;  or  is  it  just  buncombe  like  the 
Senator's  dignity? 

And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  when  he  had  to 
do  with  a  different  element,  honest  but  not  yet 
persuaded,  note  the  change  from  blow  to  argu- 
ment. I  quote  from  a  speech  he  made  to  a  club 
of  business  men  in  the  thick  of  the  fight : 

"  We  hear  much  of  the  question  whether 
the  Government  should  take  control  of  the 
[in] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

telegraph  lines  and  railways  of  the  country. 
Before  that  question  can  be  so  much  as  dis- 
cussed, it  ought  to  be  definitely  settled  that, 
if  the  Government  takes  control  of  either  tele- 
graph line  or  railway,  it  must  do  it  to  manage  it 
purely  as  a  business  undertaking,  and  must 
manage  it  with  a  service  wholly  unconnected 
with  politics.  I  should  like  to  call  the  special 
attention  of  the  gentlemen  in  bodies  interested 
in  increasing  the  sphere  of  State  action — in- 
terested in  giving  the  State  control  more  and 
more  over  railways,  over  telegraph  lines,  and 
over  other  things  of  the  sort— to  the  fact  that 
the  condition  precedent  upon  success  is  to  es- 
tablish an  absolutely  non-partisan  govern- 
mental system.  When  that  point  is  once  set- 
tled, we  can  discuss  the  advisability  of  doing 
what  these  gentlemen  wish,  but  not  before." 

Single-handed,  I  said.  At  least  we  heard 
from  him  only  in  those  days.  But  afterward 
there  came  to  join  him  on  the  Commission  a 
Kentuckian,  an  old  Confederate  veteran,  a 
Democrat,  and  withal  as  fine  a  fellow  as  ever 
drew  breath— John  R.  Procter— and  the  two 
struck  hands  in  a  friendship  that  was  for 
life. 

[112] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

"  Every  day,"  said  Mr.  Procter  as  we  lay 
in  the  grass  up  in  the  Berkshires  last  summer 
and  looked  out  over  the  peaceful  valley,  "  every 
day  I  went  to  the  office  as  to  an  entertainment. 
•I  knew  something  was  sure  to  turn  up  to  make 
our  work  worth  while,  with  him  there.  When 
he  went  away,  I  had  heart  in  it  no  longer." 

The  thing  that  turned  up  at  regular  inter- 
vals was  an  investigation  by  Congress.  Some- 
times it  was  charges  of  one  kind  or  another; 
sometimes  the  weapon  was  ridicule;  always  at 
the  bottom  the  purpose  was  the  same:  to  get 
rid  of  this  impudent  thing  that  was  interposing 
itself  between  the  legislator  and  the  patronage 
that  had  been  to  him  the  sinews  of  war  till  then, 
costly  sinews  as  he  often  enough  had  found 
out,  but  still  the  only  ones  he  knew  how  to  use. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  met  every  attack  with  his  un- 
varying policy  of  candor ;  blow  for  blow  where 
that  was  needed;  at  other  times  with  tact  so 
finished,  a  shrewdness  of  diplomacy  at  which 
the  enemy  stared  in  helpless  rage.  For  the 
country  was  visibly  falling  in  behind  this 
wholesome,  good-humored  fighter.  I  remember 
yet  with  amusement  the  "  withering  charge," 
as  he  called  it,  which  one  of  the  Washington 
LW 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

papers  brought  against  him.  It  published 
one  of  his  letters  in  facsimile  and  asked  scorn- 
fully if  this  man  could  pass  an  examination  in 
penmanship  for  the  desk  of  a  third-rate  clerk 
in  his  own  office;  yet  he  sat  in  judgment  on  the 
handwriting  of  aspirants.  Now,  I  have  always 
thought  Mr.  Roosevelt's  handwriting  fine.  It 
is  n't  ornate.  Indeed,  it  might  be  called  very 
plain,  extra  plain,  if  you  like.  But  his  char- 
acter is  all  over  it  :  a  child  could  read  it.  There 
can  never  be  any  doubt  as  to  what  he  means, 
and  that,  it  seems  to  me,  is  what  you  want 
of  a  man's  writing.  Here  is  a  line  of  it  now 
which  I  quoted  before,  still  lying  on  my  table. 
Squeezed  in  between  lines  of  typewriting  it  is 
not  a  fair  sample,  but  take  it  as  it  is: 


I  haven't  heard  a  »ord  about  it  from  cy  superior  officers,  »bo 


r,  ^^.  ^JTTT' 

/      Cordially  yours 


However,  Roosevelt  made  no  bones  about  it. 
He  owned  up  that  he  could  n't  pass  for  a  clerk- 
ship, which  was  well,  he  said,  for  he  would  have 
made  but  a  poor  clerk,  while  he  thought  he 

[114] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

could  make  a  good  Commissioner.  "  And," 
he  added,  "  there  it  is.  Under  our  system  of 
civil  service  examinations  I  could  n't  get  in, 
whereas  under  the  old  spoils  system  you  ad- 
vocate I  would  have  had  pull  enough  to  get 
the  appointment  to  the  clerkship  I  was  n't  fit 
for.  Don't  you  see?  " 

I  presume  the  editor  saw,  for  nothing  more 
was  said  about  it. 

In  the  hottest  of  the  fighting,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
executed  a  flank  movement  of  such  consum- 
mate strategic  skill  and  shrewdness  that  it 
fairly  won  him  the  battle.  He  ordered  exami- 
nations for  department  positions  at  Washing- 
ton to  be  held  in  the  States,  not  at  the  Capital. 
When  the  successful  candidates  came  to  take 
the  places  they  had  won— when  Congressman 
Smith  met  a  young  fellow  from  his  county 
whom  he  knew  in  Washington,  holding  office 
under  an  administration  hostile  in  politics  as 
he  knew,  a  great  light  dawned  upon  him.  He 
felt  the  fetters  of  patronage,  that  had  proved  a 
heavier  and  heavier  burden  to  him,  falling  from 
his  own  limbs,  and  from  among  the  Congress- 
men who  had  hotly  opposed  Roosevelt  came 
some  of  the  warmest  advocates  of  the  new 

[115] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

salvation.  The  policy  of  fairness,  of  perfect 
openness,  had  won.  But  it  was  a  fight,  sure 
enough.  Mr.  Roosevelt's  literary  labors  in 
the  cause  alone  were  immense.  Besides  the  six 
annual  reports  of  the  Commission  during  his 
incumbency — the  sixth  to  the  eleventh,  inclu- 
sive— which  were  written  largely  by  him,  his 
essays  and  papers  in  defense  of  the  reform  cov- 
ered a  range  that  would  give  a  clerk,  I  was  told 
at  the  Congressional  Library,  a  good  week's 
work  if  he  were  to  make  anything  like  a  com- 
plete list  of  them. 

There  never  yet  was  a  perfect  law,  and  the 
civil  service  law  was  no  exception.  It  did  not 
put  saints  in  office.  It  gave  men  a  fair  show, 
helped  kill  political  blackmail,  and  kept  some 
scoundrels  out.  Sometimes,  too,  it  kept  the 
best  man  out;  for  no  system  of  examination 
can  be  devised  to  make  sure  he  gets  in.  Roose- 
velt was  never  a  stickler  for  the  letter  of  any- 
thing. I  know  that  perhaps  better  than  any- 
body. If  I  were  to  tell  how  many  times  we 
have  sat  down  together  to  devise  a  way  of  get- 
ting through  the  formal  husk,  even  at  the  risk 
of  bruising  it  some,  to  get  at  the  kernel,  the 
spirit  of  justice  that  is  the  soul  of  every  law, 

[116] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

however  undeveloped,  I  might  frighten  some 
good  people  needlessly.  I  think  likely  it  was 
the  recognition  of  this  quality  in  the  man,  the 
entire  absence  of  pedantry  in  his  advocacy  of 
the  reform,  that  won  the  people  over  to  him  as 
much  as  anything.  Some  good  stories  are  told 
about  that,  but  perhaps  one  he  told  himself 
of  his  experience  as  a  regimental  commander 
in  the  Spanish  war  sheds  more  light  on  that 
side  of  him  than  anything  else.  He  had  a  man 
in  his  regiment,  a  child  of  the  frontier,  in 
whom  dwelt  the  soul  of  a  soldier— in  war,  not 
in  peace.  By  no  process  of  reasoning  or  dis- 
cipline could  he  be  persuaded  to  obey  the  camp 
regulations,  while  the  regiment  lay  at  San  An- 
tonio, and  at  last  he  was  court-martialed,  sen- 
tenced to  six  months'  imprisonment — a  tech- 
nical sentence,  for  there  was  no  jail  to  put  him 
in.  The  prison  was  another  Rough-Rider  fol- 
lowing him  around  with  a  rifle  to  keep  him  in 
bounds.  Then  came  the  call  to  Cuba,  and  the 
Colonel  planned  to  leave  him  behind  as  useless 
baggage.  When  the  man  heard  of  it,  his  soul 
was  stirred  to  its  depths.  He  came  and  pleaded 
as  a  child  to  be  taken  along.  He  would  always 
be  good ;  never  again  could  he  show  up  in  Kan- 

[117] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

sas  if  the  regiment  went  to  the  war  without 
him.  At  sight  of  his  real  agony  Mr.  Roose- 
velt's heart  relented. 

"  All  right,"  he  said.  "  You  deserve  to  be 
shot  as  much  as  anybody.  You  shall  go."  And 
he  went,  flowing  over  with  gratitude,  to  prove 
himself  in  the  field  as  good  a  man  as  his  prison 
of  yore  who  fought  beside  him. 

Then  came  the  mustering  out.  When  the 
last  man  was  checked  off  and  accounted  for, 
the  War  Department  official,  quartermaster 
or  general  or  something,  fumbled  with  his 
papers. 

"  Where  is  the  prisoner?  "  he  asked. 

"  The  prisoner?  "  echoed  Colonel  Roosevelt; 
"  what  prisoner? " 

"  Why,  the  man  who  got  six  months  at  a 
court-martial." 

"  Oh,  he!  He  is  all  right.  I  remitted  his 
sentence." 

The  official  looked  the  Colonel  over  curi- 
ously. 

"  You  remitted  his  sentence,"  he  said.  "  Sen- 
tenced by  a  court-martial,  approved  by  the 
commanding  general,  you  remitted  his  sen- 
tence. Well,  you  've  got  nerve." 

[118] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

Perhaps  the  Civil  Service  Commissioner's 
"  nerve  "  had  something  to  do  with  winning  his 
fight.  I  like  to  think  it  had.  With  that  added, 
one  could  almost  feel  like  hugging  civil  ser- 
vice reform. 

One  phase  of  this  "  Six  Years'  War  "  I  can- 
not pass  by,  since  it  may  serve  as  a  chart  to 
some  inquiring  minds  much  troubled  to  find 
out  where  the  President  will  stand  in  matters 
of  recent  notoriety.  They  may  give  up  their 
still-hunt  for  information  and  assume  with  per- 
fect confidence  that  he  will  stand  where  he  al- 
ways has  stood,  on  the  square  platform  of  fair 
dealing  between  man  and  man.  Here  is  the 
letter  that  made  me  think  of  it.  It  was  written 
to  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Reform 
in  the  Civil  Service  of  the  Fifty-third  Con- 
gress, in  the  spring  of  1894,  the  year  before  he 
left  the  Commission: 

Congressman  Williams,  of  Mississippi,  attacked  the 
Commission  in  substance  because  under  the  Commis- 
sion white  men  and  men  of  color  are  treated  with  ex- 
act impartiality.  As  to  this,  I  have  to  say  that  so 
!ong  as  the  present  Commissioners  continue  their  of- 
ficial existence  they  will  not"  make,  and,  so  far  as  in 
their  power  lies,  will  refuse  to  allow  others  to  make, 
any  discrimination  whatsoever  for  or  against  any  man 
[119] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

because  of  his  color,  any  more  than  because  of  his 
politics  or  religion.  We  do  equal  and  exact  justice 
to  all,  and  I  challenge  Mr.  Williams  or  any  one  else  to 
show  a  single  instance  where  the  Commission  has  failed 
to  do  this.  Mr.  Williams  specified  the  Railway  Mail 
Service  in  Missouri  as  being  one  in  which  negroes  are 
employed.  The  books  of  the  Railway  Mail  Service  for 
the  division  including  South  Carolina,  Florida,  Georgia, 
Alabama,  and  Mississippi  were  shown  me  yesterday, 
and  according  to  these  books  about  three-fourths  of 
the  employees  are  white  and  one-fourth  colored.  Under 
the  last  administration  it  was  made  a  reproach  to  us 
that  we  did  full  and  entire  justice  to  the  Southern 
Democrats,  and  that  through  our  examinations  many 
hundreds  of  them  entered  the  classified  service,  although 
under  a  Republican  administration.  Exactly  in  the 
same  way,  it  is  now  made  a  reproach  to  us  that  under 
our  examinations  honest  and  capable  colored  men  are 
given  an  even  chance  with  honest  and  capable  white 
men.  I  esteem  this  reproach  a  high  compliment  to 
the  Commission,  for  it  is  an  admission  that  the  Com- 
mission has  rigidly  done  its  duty  as  required  by  law 
without  regard  to  politics  or  religion  and  without  re- 
gard to  color.  Very  respectfully, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

"  You  cannot  change  him  unless  you  con- 
vince him,"  said  Mr.  Procter  to  me,  as  we  got 
up  to  go  down  into  the  valley,  whence  the  gray 
evening  shadows  were  reaching  up  toward  us. 

[120] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

If  you  think  you  can  convince  Theodore  Roose- 
velt that  a  square  deal  is  not  the  right  thing, 
you  can  look  for  a  change  in  him  when  he  has 
taken  a  stand  on  a  moral  question;  else  you 
need  n't  trouble. 

President  Cleveland  was  in  office  by  that 
time,  and  the  Democratic  party  was  in.  But 
Roosevelt  stayed  as  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sioner, and  abated  not  one  jot  of  his  zeal.  I  do 
not  know  what  compact  was  made  between  the 
two  men,  but  I  can  guess  from  what  I  knew  of 
them  both.  An  incident  of  the  White  House 
shows  what  kind  of  regard  grew  up  between 
them  as  they  came  to  know  one  another.  It 
was  the  day  President  McKinley  was  buried. 
President  Roosevelt  had  come  in  alone. 
Among  the  mourners  he  saw  Mr.  Cleveland. 
Now,  the  etiquette  of  the  White  House,  which 
is  in  its  way  as  rigid  as  that  of  any  court  in 
Europe,  requires  that  the  President  shall  be 
sought  out;  he  is  not  to  go  to  any  one.  But 
Mr.  Roosevelt  waved  it  all  aside  with  one  im- 
pulsive gesture  as  he  went  straight  to  Mr. 
Cleveland  and  took  his  hand.  An  official  who 
stood  next  to  them,  and  who  told  me,  heard 
him  say: 

[121] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

"  It  will  always  be  a  source  of  pride  and 
pleasure  to  me  to  have  served  under  President 
Cleveland."  Mr.  Cleveland  shook  hands,  mute 
with  emotion. 

I  learned  afterward  that  among  all  the 
countless  messages  of  sympathy  and  cheer  that 
came  to  him  in  those  hard  days,  the  one  of 
them  all  he  prized  highest  and  that  touched 
him  most  deeply  was  from  Grover  Cleveland. 

The  Six  Years'  War  was  nearly  over  when 
the  summons  came  to  him  to  take  the  helm  in 
the  Police  Department  in  New  York  City,  the 
then  storm-center  in  the  fight  for  civic  regen- 
eration. He  and  his  colleague,  Mr.  Procter, 
had  their  first  and  only  falling  out  over  his 
choice  to  go  into  the  new  fight.  They  quar- 
reled over  it  until  Roosevelt  put  his  arm  over 
the  other's  shoulder  and  said:  "  Old  friend!  I 
have  made  up  my  mind  that  it  is  right  for  me 
to  go." 

Mr.  Procter  shook  him  off  almost  roughly, 
and  got  up  from  the  table.  "  All  right,"  he 
said,  "  go  I  You  always  would  have  your  way, 
and  I  suppose  you  are  right,  blank  it  and  blank 
blank  it!  "  and  the  grizzled  old  veteran  went 
out  and  wept  like  a  child. 

[122] 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

The  outcome  of  it  all?  Figures  convey  no 
idea  of  it.  To  say  that  he  found  14,000  govern- 
ment officers  under  the  civil  service  rules,  and 
left  40,000,  does  not  tell  the  story ;  not  even  in 
its  own  poor  way,  for  there  are  125,000  now, 
and  when  the  ransomed  number  200,000  it  will 
still  be  Roosevelt's  work.  President  Cleveland 
put  it  more  nearly  right  in  his  letter  to  Mr. 
Roosevelt  regretfully  accepting  his  resigna- 
tion. 

"  You  are  certainly  to  be  congratulated,"  he 
wrote,  "  upon  the  extent  and  permanency  of 
civil  service  reform  methods  which  you  have 
so  substantially  aided  in  bringing  about.  The 
struggle  for  its  firm  establishment  and  recogni- 
tion is  past.  Its  faithful  application  and  rea- 
sonable expansion  remain,  subjects  of  deep  in- 
terest to  all  who  really  desire  the  best  attainable 
public  service." 

That  was  what  the  country  got  out  of  it. 
The  fight  was  won— wait,  let  me  put  that  a 
little  less  strongly:  the  way  to  the  victory  is 
cleared.  Just  now,  as  I  was  writing  that  sen- 
tence, a  man,  an  old  friend,  a  teacher  in  Israel, 
came  into  my  office  and  to  him  I  read  what  I 
had  just  written.  "  That 's  right,"  he  said ;  "  I 

[123] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

came  in  to  ask  you  if  you  would  n't  help  a 
young  man  who  wants  to  get  into  the  public 
employment.  He  is  a  fine  fellow,  has  got  all 
the  qualifications.  All  he  needs  is  influence  to 
get  him  a  place.  Without  influence  you  cannot 
do  anything." 

The  fight  will  be  over  the  day  the  American 
people  get  that  notion  out  of  their  heads,  not 
before.  They  can  drop  it  now,  for  it  is  all  that 
really  is  left.  Roosevelt  won  them  the  right  to 
do  that.  He  won  his  father's  fight  that  he  had 
made  his  own.  I  know  how  much  that  meant 
to  him. 

The  country  got  more  out  of  it :  it  got  a  man 
to  whom  great  tasks  and  great  opportunities 
were  to  come  with  the  years,  trained  in  the 
school  of  all  schools  to  perfect  skill  in  dealing 
with  men,  in  making  out  their  motives  and 
their  worth  as  fighting  units.  The  devious 
paths  of  diplomacy  have  no  such  training- 
school  for  leadership  as  he  found  in  Washing- 
ton fighting  for  a  great  principle,  touching  el- 
bows every  day  with  men  from  all  over  the 
country,  with  the  leaders  in  thought  and  action, 
in  politics,  in  every  phase  of  public  life.  He 
went  there,  a  fearless  battler  for  the  right,  and 


THE  FAIR  PLAY  DEPARTMENT 

came  away  with  all  his  ideals  bright  and  unsul- 
lied. It  was  in  the  Civil  Service  Commission's 
office  the  cunning  was  fashioned  which,  without 
giving  offense,  put  the  Kishineff  petition  into 
the  hands  of  the  Czar  and  his  Ministers  be- 
fore they  had  time  to  say  they  would  not  receive 
it,  and  gave  notice  to  the  Muscovite  world  that 
there  was  a  moral  sense  across  the  sea  to  be 
reckoned  with ;  of  which  fact  it  took  due  notice. 
Still  more  did  the  country  get  out  of  that 
Six  Years'  War:  from  end  to  end  of  the  land 
the  men  with  ideals,  young  and  old,  the  men 
and  women  who  would  help  their  fellows,  help 
their  cities,  took  heart  from  his  example  and  his 
victory.  Perhaps  that  was  the  greatest  gain, 
the  one  that  went  farthest.  It  endures  to  this 
day.  Wherever  he  fights,  men  fall  in  behind 
and  fight  on  with  new  hope;  they  know  they 
can  win  if  they  keep  it  up.  And  they  will,  let 
them  be  sure  of  it.  All  the  little  defeats  are 
just  to  test  their  grit.  It  is  a  question  of  grit, 
that  is  all. 


[195] 


VI 
MULBERRY  STREET 


VI 
IN  MULBERRY  STREET 

A  "DOZEN  years  had  wrought  their 
changes  since  Roosevelt  took  his  leg- 
islative committee  down  from  Albany 
to  investigate  the  Police  Department  of  New 
York  City.  The  only  change  they  had  brought 
to  Mulberry  Street *  was  that  of  aggravating 
a  hundredfold  the  evils  which  had  then  at- 
tracted attention.  He  had  put  an  unerring 
finger  upon  politics  as  the  curse  that  was  eat- 
ing out  the  heart  of  the  force  once  called  the 
finest  in  the  world.  The  diagnosis  was  cor- 
rect; but  the  prescription  written  out  by  the 
spoilsmen  was  more  politics  and  ever  more  poli- 
tics; and  the  treatment  was  about  as  bad  as 
could  have  been  devised.  With  the  police  be- 
come an  avowedly  political  body  with  a  bi-par- 

i  The  Police  Headquarters  of  the  city  is  in  Mulberry  Street. 
[129] 


THEODORE.  ROOSEVELT 

tisan  in  stead  of  a  non-partisan  Board  of  Com- 
missioners, there  grew  up,  primarily  through 
the  operation,  or  non-operation,  of  the  Sunday 
saloon-closing  law,  a  system  of  police  blackmail 
unheard  of  in  the  world  before.  It  was  the 
disclosure  of  its  slimy  depths  through  the 
labors  of  Dr.  Parkhurst  and  of  the  Lexow 
Committee  which  brought  about  the  political 
revolution  out  of  which  came  reform  and 
Roosevelt.  But  in  Mulberry  Street  they  were 
hailed  as  freaks.  The  "  system  "  so  far  had 
been  invincible.  It  had  broken  many  men  who 
had  got  in  its  way. 

"  It  will  break  you,"  was  the  greeting  with 
which  Byrnes,  the  Big  Chief,  who  had  ruled 
Mulberry  Street  with  a  hard  hand,  but  had 
himself  bowed  to  "  the  system,"  received  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  "  You  will  yield.  You  are  but 
human." 

The  answer  of  the  new  President  of  the 
Board  was  to  close  the  gate  of  the  politicians 
to  police  patronage. 

"  We  want,"  he  said,  "  the  civil  service  law 
applied  to  appointments  here,  not  because  it  is 
the  ideal  way,  but  because  it  is  the  only  way 
to  knock  the  political  spoilsmen  out,  and  you 

[130] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

have  to  do  that  to  get  anywhere."  And  the 
Board  made  the  order. 

Next  he  demanded  the  resignation  of  the 
chief,  and  forbade  the  annual  parade  for  which 
preparations  were  being  made.  "  We  will 
parade  when  we  need  not  be  ashamed  to  show 
ourselves."  And  then  he  grappled  with  the 
saloons. 

Here,  before  we  go  into  that  fight,  let  me 
turn  aside  a  moment  to  speak  of  myself;  then 
perhaps  with  good  luck  we  shall  have  less  of 
me  hereafter.  Though  how  that  can  be  I  don't 
really  know;  for  now  I  had  Roosevelt  at  last 
in  my  own  domain.  For  two  years  we  were 
to  be  together  all  the  day,  and  quite  often  most 
of  the  night,  in  the  environment  in  which  I  had 
spent  twenty  years  of  my  life.  And  these  two 
were  the  happiest  by  far  of  them  all.  Then 
was  life  really  worth  living,  and  I  have  a  pretty 
robust  enjoyment  of  it  at  all  times.  Else- 
where I  have  told  how  we  became  acquainted; 
how  he  came  to  my  office  one  day  when  I  was 
out  and  left  his  card  with  the  simple  words 
written  in  pencil  upon  it:  "I  have  read  your 
book,  and  I  have  come  to  help."  That  was  the 
beginning.  The  book  was  "  How  the  Other 

[131] 


THEODORE.  ROOSEVELT 

Half  Lives,"  in  which  I  tried  to  draw  an  in- 
dictment of  the  things  that  were  wrong,  piti- 
fully and  dreadfully  wrong,  with  the  tenement 
homes  of  our  wage-workers.  It  was  like  a  man 
coming  to  enlist  for  a  war  because  he  believed 
in  the  cause,  and  truly  he  did.  Now  had  come 
the  time  when  he  could  help  indeed.  Decency 
had  moved  into  the  City  Hall,  where  shame- 
less indifference  ruled  before.  His  first 
thought  was  to  have  me  help  there.  I  preserve 
two  letters  from  him,  from  the  time  between 
the  election  in  1894  that  put  Tammany  out 
and  the  New  Year  when  Mayor  Strong 
and  reform  moved  in,  in  which  he  urges  this 
idea.  t«"< 

"  It  is  very  important  to  the  city,"  he  writes, 
"  to  have  a  business  man's  mayor,  but  it  is  more 
important  to  have  a  workingman's  mayor,  and 
I  want  Mr.  Strong  to  be  that  also.  ...  I  am 
exceedingly  anxious  that,  if  it  is  possible,  the 
Mayor  shall  appoint  you  to  some  position 
which  shall  make  you  one  of  his  official  ad- 
visers. ...  It  is  an  excellent  thing  to  have  rapid 
transit,  but  it  is  a  good  deal  more  important, 
if  you  look  at  matters  with  a  proper  perspec- 
tive, to  have  ample  playgrounds  in  the  poorer 
[189] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

quarters  of  the  city,  and  to  take  the  children 
off  the  streets  to  prevent  them  from  growing 
up  toughs.  In  the  same  way  it  is  an  admirable 
thing  to  have  clean  streets;  indeed, it  is  an  essen- 
tial thing  to  have  them ;  but  it  would  be  a  better 
thing  to  have  our  schools  large  enough  to  give 
ample  accommodation  to  all  should-be  pupils, 
and  to  provide  them  with  proper  play- 
grounds." 

You  see,  he  had  not  changed.  His  was  the 
same  old  plan,  to  help  the  man  who  was  down ; 
and  he  was  right,  too.  It  was  and  is  the  es- 
sential thing  in  a  country  like  ours :  not  to  prop 
him  up  forever,  not  to  carry  him;  but  to  help 
him  to  his  feet  so  he  can  go  himself.  Else  the 
whole  machine  won't  go  at  length  in  the  groove 
in  which  we  have  started  it.  The  last  letter 
concludes  with  regret  that  he  had  not  seen  his 
way  clear  to  accept  the  street-cleaning  com- 
missionership  that  was  offered  him  by  the 
Mayor,  for  "  I  should  have  been  delighted  to 
smash  up  the  corrupt  contractors  and  put  the 
street-cleaning  force  absolutely  out  of  the  do- 
main of  politics."  No  doubt  he  would;  but 
it  was  well  he  did  n't,  for  so  Colonel  Waring 
came  into  our  city's  life,  and  he  was  just  such 

[133] 


THEODORE-  ROOSEVELT 


another,  and  an  engineer  besides,  who  knew 
how. 

As  to  the  share  he  wanted  me  to  take  in  it, 
we  had  it  out  at  the  time  over  that  ;  and,  though 
we  had  little  tugs  after  that,  off  and  on,  it  was 
settled  then  that  I  should  not  be  called  upon 
to  render  that  kind  of  service  —  to  Mayor 
Strong's  rather  bewildered  relief,  I  fancy.  I 
think,  to  the  end  of  his  official  life  he  did  not 
get  quite  rid  of  a  notion  that  I  was  nursing 
some  sort  of  an  unsatisfied  ambition  and  reserv- 
ing my  strength  for  a  sudden  raid  upon  him. 
I  know  that  when  I  asked  him  to  appoint  an 
unofficial  Small  Parks  Committee,  and  to  put 
me  on  it,  it  took  him  a  long  time  to  make  up  his 
mind  that  there  was  not  a  nigger  in  that  wood- 
pile somewhere.  He  was  the  only  man,  if  I  am 
right  in  that,  who  ever  gave  me  credit  for  po- 
litical plotting.  For  when,  afterward,  as  I  re- 
corded in  "  The  Making  of  an  American,"  I 
marched  the  Christian  Endeavorers  and  the 
Methodist  ministers  to  the  support  of  Roose- 
velt in  the  fight  between  him  and  his  wicked 
partners  in  the  Police  Board,  that  was  not  plot- 
ting, though  they  called  it  so,  but  just  war;  a 

[134] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

kind  of  hold-up,  if  you  like,  in  the  plain  in- 
terests of  the  city's  welfare. 

But  "  the  system  "  Roosevelt  was  called  to 
break  up.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  describe  it. 
The  world  must  be  weary  of  it  to  the  point 
of  disgust.  We  fought  it  then ;  we  fight  it  now. 
We  shall  have  to  fight  it  no  one  can  tell  how 
often  or  how  long;  for  just  as  surely  as  we  let 
up  for  ever  so  little  a  while,  and  Tammany, 
which  is  always  waiting  without,  gets  its  foot 
between  the  door  and  the  jamb,  the  old  black- 
mail rears  its  head  once  more.  It  is  the  form 
corruption  naturally  takes  in  a  city  with  twelve 
or  thirteen  thousand  saloons,  with  a  State  law 
that  says  they  shall  be  closed  on  Sundays,  and 
with  a  defiant  thirst  which  puts  a  premium  on 
violating  the  law  by  making  it  the  most  profit- 
able day  in  the  week  to  the  saloon-keeper  who 
will  take  the  chances.  Those  chances  are  the 
opportunities  of  the  politician  and  of  the  police 
where  the  two  connect.  The  politicians  use  the 
law  as  a  club  to  keep  the  saloons  in  line,  all 
except  the  biggest,  the  keepers  of  which  sit  in 
the  inner  councils  of  ''the  Hall";  the  police 
use  it  for  extorting  blackmail.  "  The  result 

[135] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was,"  said  Roosevelt  himself,  when  he  had  got 
a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  situation,  "  that  the 
officers  of  the  law  and  the  saloon-keepers  be- 
came inextricably  tangled  in  a  network  of 
crime  and  connivance  at  crime.  The  most  pow- 
erful saloon-keepers  controlled  the  politicians 
and  the  police,  while  the  latter  in  turn  terror- 
ized and  blackmailed  all  the  other  saloon-keep- 
ers." Within  the  year  or  two  that  preceded 
Roosevelt's  coming  to  Mulberry  Street,  this 
system  of  "  blackmail  had  been  brought  to  such 
a  state  of  perfection,  and  had  become  so  op- 
pressive to  the  liquor-dealers  themselves,  that 
they  communicated  first  with  Governor  Hill 
and  then  with  Mr.  Croker."  I  am  quoting  now 
from  a  statement  made  by  the  editor  of  their 
organ,  the  "  Wine  and  Spirit  Gazette,"  the 
correctness  of  which  was  never  questioned. 
The  excise  law  was  being  enforced  with  "  gross 
discrimination."  "  A  committee  of  the  Cen- 
tral Association  of  Liquor  Dealers  took  the 
matter  up  and  called  upon  Police  Commis- 
sioner Martin  ( Mr.  Roosevelt's  Tammany  pre- 
decessor in  the  presidency  of  the  Board) .  An 
agreement  was  made  between  the  leaders  of 
Tammany  Hall  and  the  liquor-dealers,  accord- 

[136] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

ing  to  which  the  monthly  blackmail  paid  to  the 
police  should  be  discontinued  in  return  for  po- 
litical support/'  The  strange  thing  is  that  they 
did  not  put  it  on  the  books  at  headquarters  in 
regular  form.  Probably  they  did  not  think 
of  it. 

But  the  agreement  was  kept  only  with  those 
who  had  "  pull."  It  did  not  hurt  them  to  see 
their  smaller,  helpless  rivals  bullied  and  black- 
mailed by  the  police.  As  for  the  police,  they 
were  taking  no  chances.  They  had  bought  ap- 
pointment, or  promotion,  of  Tammany  with 
the  understanding  that  they  were  to  reimburse 
themselves  for  the  outlay.  Their  hunger  only 
grew  as  they  fed,  until  they  blackmailed  every- 
thing in  sight,  from  the  push-cart  peddler  in 
the  street,  who  had  bought  his  license  to  sell,  but 
was  clubbed  from  post  to  post  until  he  "  gave 
up,"  to  the  brothel,  the  gambling-house,  and 
the  policy-shop,  for  which  they  had  regular 
rates:  so  much  for  "initiation"  every  time  a 
new  captain  came  to  the  precinct,  and  so  much 
per  month  for  permission  to  run.  The  total 
ran  up  in  the  millions.  New  York  was  a  wide- 
open  town.  The  bosses  at  "  the  Hall  "  fairly 
rolled  in  wealth ;  the  police  had  lost  all  decency 

[137] 


THEODORE-  ROOSEVELT 

and  sense  of  justice.  That  is,  the  men  who  ran 
the  force  had.  The  honest  men  on  the  patrol 
posts,  the  men  with  the  night-sticks  as  Roose- 
velt called  them  when  he  spoke  of  them,  had 
lost  courage  and  hope. 

This  was  the  situation  that  confronted  him  in 
Mulberry  Street,  and  with  characteristic  di- 
rectness he  decided  that  in  the  saloon  was  the 
tap-root  of  the  mischief.  The  thing  to  do  was 
to  enforce  the  Sunday-closing  law.  And  he 
did. 

The  storm  that  rose  lives  in  my  memory  as 
the  most  amazing  tempest — I  was  going  to 
say  in  a  teapot — that  ever  was.  But  it  was  a 
capital  affair  to  those  whose  graft  was  at  stake. 
The  marvel  was  in  the  reach  they  had.  It 
seemed  for  a  season  as  if  society  was  struck 
through  and  through  with  the  rottenness  of  it 
all.  That  the  politicians,  at  first  incredulous, 
took  the  alarm  was  not  strange.  They  had  an 
interest.  But  in  their  tow  came  half  the  com- 
munity, as  it  seemed,  counseling,  praying,  be- 
seeching this  man  to  cease  his  rash  upturning 
of  the  foundations  of  things,  and  use  discre- 
tion. Roosevelt  replied  grimly  that  there  was 
nothing  about  discretion  in  his  oath  of  office, 

[138] 


IN   MULBERRY   STREET 

and  quoted  to  them  Lincoln's  words,  "  Let  rev- 
erence of  law  be  taught  in  schools  and  colleges, 
be  written  in  primers  and  spelling-books,  be 
published  from  pulpits  and  proclaimed  in  leg- 
islative houses,  and  enforced  in  the  courts  of 
justice— in  short,  let  it  become  the  political 
religion  of  the  nation."  He  was  doing  nothing 
worse  than  enforcing  honestly  a  law  that  had 
been  enforced  dishonestly  in  all  the  years. 
Still  the  clamor  rose.  The  yellow  newspapers 
pursued  Roosevelt  with  malignant  lies.  They 
shouted  daily  that  the  city  was  overrun  with 
thieves  and  murderers,  that  crime  was  rampant 
and  unavenged,  because  the  police  were  worn 
out  in  the  Sunday-closing  work.  Every  thief, 
cut-throat,  and  blackmailer  who  had  place  and 
part  in  the  old  order  of  things  joined  in  the 
howl.  Roosevelt  went  deliberately  on,  the  only 
one  who  was  calm  amid  all  the  hubbub.  And 
when,  after  many  weeks  of  it,  the  smoke  cleared 
away ;  when  the  saloon-keepers  owned  in  court 
that  they  were  beaten;  when  the  warden  of 
Bellevue  Hospital  reported  that  for  the  first 
time  in  its  existence  there  had  not  been  a 
"  case,"  due  to  a  drunken  brawl,  in  the  hospi- 
tal all  Monday;  when  the  police  courts  gave 

[139] 


THEODORE-  ROOSEVELT 

their  testimony,  while  savings-banks  recorded 
increased  deposits  and  pawn-shops  hard  times ; 
when  poor  mothers  flocked  to  the  institu- 
tions to  get  their  children  whom  they  had 
placed  there  for  safe-keeping  in  the  "  wide- 
open  "  days — then  we  knew  what  his  victory 
meant. 

These  were  the  things  that  happened.  They 
are  the  facts.  Living  in  this  cosmopolitan  city, 
where,  year  after  year,  the  Sunday-closing  law 
turns  up  as  an  issue  in  the  fight  for  good  gov- 
ernment,— an  issue,  so  we  are  told,  with  the 
very  people,  the  quiet,  peace-loving  Germans, 
upon  whom  we,  from  every  other  point  of  view, 
would  always  count  as  allies  in  that  struggle, 
—I  find  myself  impatiently  enough  joining  in 
the  demand  for  freedom  from  the  annoyance, 
for  a  "  liberal  observance "  of  Sunday  that 
shall  rid  us  of  this  ghost  at  our  civic  banquet. 
And  then  I  turn  around  and  look  at  the  facts 
as  they  were  then ;  at  that  Sunday  which  Roose- 
velt and  I  spent  from  morning  till  night  in  the 
tenement  districts,  seeing  for  ourselves  what 
went  on ;  at  the  happy  children  and  contented 
mothers  we  met  whose  homes,  according  to  their 
self-styled  defenders,  were  at  that  verv  time 

[140] 


IN   MULBERRY   STREET 

being  "  hopelessly  desolated  by  the  enforce- 
ment of  a  tyrannical  law  surviving  from  the 
dark  ages  of  religious  bigotry  " ;  and  I  ask  my- 
self how  much  of  all  the  clamor  for  Sunday 
beer  comes  from  the  same  pot  that  spewed 
forth  its  charges  against  Roosevelt  so  venom- 
ously. It  may  be  that  we  shall  need  another 
emancipation  before  we  get  our  real  bearings: 
the  delivery  of  the  honest  Germans  from  their 
spokesmen  who  would  convince  us  that  with 
them  every  issue  of  family  life,  of  good  govern- 
ment, of  manhood  and  decency,  is  subordinate 
to  the  one  of  beer,  and  beer  only. 

Blackmail  was  throttled  for  a  season;  but 
the  clamor  never  ceased.  Roosevelt  shut  the 
police-station  lodging-rooms,  the  story  of 
which  I  told  in  "  The  Making  of  an  Ameri- 
can." Greater  service  was  never  rendered  the 
city  by  any  man.  For  it  he  was  lampooned  and 
caricatured.  He  was  cruel! — he  who  spent  his 
waking  and  sleeping  hours  planning  relief 
for  his  brother  in  distress.  So  little  was  he 
understood  that  even  the  venerable  chairman 
of  the  Charter  Revision  Committee  asked  him 
sternly  if  he  "  had  no  pity  for  the  poor."  I 
can  see  him  now,  bending  contracted  brows 

[141] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

upon  the  young  man  who  struck  right  and 
left  where  he  saw  wrong  done.  Roosevelt  an- 
swered patiently  enough,  with  respect  for  the 
gray  hairs,  that  it  was  poor  pity  for  the  tramp 
to  enable  him  to  go  on  tramping,  which  was  all 
the  lodging-houses  did;  and  he  went  right 
ahead  and  shut  them  up. 

We  had  a  law  forbidding  the  sale  of  liquor 
to  children,  which  was  a  dead  letter.  I  stood 
in  front  of  one  East  Side  saloon  and  watched 
a  steady  stream  of  little  ones  with  mugs  and 
bottles  going  through  the  door,  and  I  told 
Roosevelt.  He  gave  orders  to  seize  the  worst 
offender,  and  had  him  dragged  to  court ;  but  to 
do  it  he  had  to  permit  the  use  of  a  boy  to  get 
evidence,  a  regular  customer  who  had  gone 
there  a  hundred  times  for  a  bad  purpose,  and 
now  was  sent  in  once  for  a  good  one.  A  howl  of 
protest  arose.  The  magistrate  discharged  the 
saloon-keeper  and  reprimanded  the  policeman. 
Like  a  pack  of  hungry  wolves  they  snarled 
at  Roosevelt.  He  was  to  be  legislated  out  of 
office.  He  turned  to  the  decent  people  of  the 
city.  "  We  shall  not  have  to  employ  such 
means,"  he  said,  "  once  a  year,  but  when  we 
need  to  we  shall  not  shrink  from  it.  It  is  idle 

[142] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

to  ask  us  to  employ  against  law-breakers  only 
such  means  as  those  law-breakers  approve. 
We  are  not  playing  '  puss  in  the  corner '  with 
the  criminals.  We  intend  to  stamp  out  these 
vermin,  and  we  do  not  intend  to  consult  the 
vermin  as  to  the  methods  we  shall  employ." 
And  the  party  managers  at  Albany  he  warned 
publicly  that  an  attack  upon  the  Police  Board, 
on  whatever  pretext,  was  an  attack  upon  its 
members  because  they  had  done  their  duty, 
and  that  the  politicians  must  reckon  with  de- 
cent sentiment,  if  they  dared  punish  them  for 
declining  to  allow  the  police  force  to  be  used 
for  political  purposes,  or  to  let  law-breakers  go 
unpunished. 

Roosevelt  won.  He  conquered  politics  and 
he  stopped  law-breaking;  but  the  biggest  vic- 
tory he  won  was  over  the  cynicism  of  a  peo- 
ple so  steeped  in  it  all  that  they  did  not  dream 
it  could  be  done.  Tammany  came  back,  but 
not  to  stay.  And  though  it  may  come  back 
many  times  yet  for  our  sins,  it  will  be  merely 
like  the  thief  who  steals  in  to  fill  his  pockets 
from  the  till  when  the  store-keeper  is  not  look- 
ing. That  was  what  we  got  out  of  having 
Roosevelt  on  the  Police  Board.  He  could  not 

[143] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

set  us  free.  We  have  got  to  do  that  ourselves. 
But  he  cut  our  bonds  and  gave  us  arms,  if  we 
chose  to  use  them. 

Of  the  night  trips  we  took  together  to  see 
how  the  police  patrolled  in  the  early  hours  of 
the  morning,  when  the  city  sleeps  and  police- 
men are  most  needed,  I  told  in  the  story  of  my 
own  life,  and  shall  not  here  repeat  it.  They 
earned  for  him  the  name  of  Haroun-al-Roose- 
velt,  those  trips  that  bore  such  sudden  good 
fruit  in  the  discipline  of  the  force.  They  were 
not  always  undertaken  solely  to  wake  up  the 
police.  Roosevelt  wanted  to  know  the  city  by 
night,  and  the  true  inwardness  of  some  of  the 
problems  he  was  struggling  with  as  Health 
Commissioner;  for  the  President  of  the  Police 
Board  was  by  that  fact  a  member  of  the  Health 
Board  also.  One  might  hear  of  overcrowd- 
ing in  tenements  for  years  and  not  grasp 
the  subject  as  he  could  by  a  single  midnight 
inspection  with  the  sanitary  police.  He 
wanted  to  understand  it  all,  the  smallest  with 
the  greatest,  and  sometimes  the  information  he 
brought  out  was  unique,  to  put  it  mildly.  I 
can  never  think  of  one  of  those  expeditions 
without  a  laugh.  We  had  company  that  night : 

[144] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

Hamlin  Garland  and  Dr.  Alexander  Lambert 
were  along.  In  the  midnight  hour  we  stopped 
at  a  peanut-stand  in  Rivington  Street  for 
provender,  and  while  the  Italian  made  change 
Roosevelt  pumped  him  on  the  economic  prob- 
lem he  presented.  How  could  he  make  it  pay  ? 
No  one  was  out ;  it  did  not  seem  as  if  his  sales 
could  pay  for  even  the  fuel  for  his  torch  that 
threw  its  flickering  light  upon  dark  pavements 
and  deserted  streets.  The  peanut-man  groped 
vainly  for  a  meaning  in  his  polite  speech,  and 
turned  a  bewildered  look  upon  the  doctor. 

"  How,"  said  he,  coming  promptly  to  the 
rescue, — "  how  you  make  him  pay — cash — 
pan  out — monish?  " 

The  Italian  beamed  with  sudden  under- 
standing. -"  Nah!  "  he  said,  with  a  gesture  elo- 
quent of  resentment  and  resignation  in  one: 
"  Wat  I  maka  on  de  peanut  I  losa  on  de  dam' 
banan'." 

Did  the  police  hate  Roosevelt  for  making 
them  do  their  duty?  No,  they  loved  him.  The 
crooks  hated  him;  they  do  everywhere,  and 
with  reason.  But  the  honest  men  on  the  force, 
who  were,  after  all,  in  the  great  majority,  even 
if  they  had  knuckled  under  in  discouragement 

[145] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  a  system  that  could  break  them,  but  against 
which  they  were  powerless,  came  quickly  to 
accept  him  as  their  hope  of  delivery.  For  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  the  department  every 
man  had  a  show  on  his  merits.  Amazing  as 
it  was,  "  pull  "  was  dead.  Politics  or  religion 
cut  no  figure.  No  one  asked  about  them.  But 
did  a  policeman,  pursuing  a  burglar  through 
the  night,  dive  running  into  the  Park  Avenue 
railroad  tunnel,  risking  a  horrible  death  to 
catch  his  man,  he  was  promptly  promoted ;  did 
a  bicycle  policeman  lie  with  broken  and  bruised 
bones  after  a  struggle  with  a  runaway  horse 
that  meant  his  life  or  the  lives  of  helpless  wo- 
men and  children  if  he  let  go,  he  arose  from  his 
bed  a  roundsman  with  the  medal  for  bravery 
on  his  breast.  Did  a  gray-haired  veteran  swim 
ashore  among  grinding  ice-floes  with  a  drown- 
ing woman,  he  was  called  to  headquarters  and 
made  a  sergeant.  I  am  speaking  of  cases  that 
actually  occurred.  The  gray-haired  veteran  of 
the  Civil  War  had  saved  twenty-eight  lives  at 
the  risk  of  his  own, — his  beat  lay  along  the  river 
shore, — had  been  twice  distinguished  by  Con- 
gress with  medals  for  valor,  bore  the  life-sav- 
ing medal,  and  had  never  a  complaint  against 

[146] 


IN  MULBERRY  STREET 

him  on  the  discipline-book;  but  about  all  the 
recognition  he  had  ever  earned  from  the  Police 
Board  was  the  privilege  of  buying  a  new  uni- 
form at  his  own  expense  when  he  had  ruined 
the  old  one  in  risking  his  life.  Roosevelt  had 
not  been  in  Mulberry  Street  four  weeks  when 
the  board  resolved,  on  his  motion,  that  clothes 
ruined  in  risking  life  on  duty  were  a  badge  of 
honor,  of  which  the  board  was  proud  to  pay  the 
cost. 

That  the  police  became,  from  a  band  of 
blackmailers'  tools,  a  body  of  heroes  in  a  few 
brief  months,  only  backs  up  my  belief  that  the 
heart  of  the  force,  with  which  my  lines  were 
cast  half  a  lifetime,  was  and  is  all  right,  with 
the  Deverys  and  the  Murphys  out  of  the  way. 
Led  by  a  Roosevelt,  it  would  be  the  most  mag- 
nificent body  of  men  to  be  found  anywhere. 
Two  years  under  him  added  quite  a  third  to  the 
roll-of -honor  record  of  forty  years  under  Tam- 
many politics.  However,  the  enemy  was  quick 
to  exploit  what  there  was  in  that.  When  I 
looked  over  the  roll  the  other  day  I  found  page 
upon  page  inscribed  with  names  I  did  not 
know,  behind  one  of  a  familiar  sound,  though  I 
could  not  quite  make  it  out.  Tammany  or 

[147] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Toomany — either  way  would  mean  the  same 
thing :  it  was  no  longer  a  roll  of  honor. 

These  were  some  of  the  things  Roosevelt  did 
in  Mulberry  Street.  He  did  many  more,  and 
they  were  all  for  its  good.  He  did  them  all  so 
simply,  so  frankly,  that  in  the  end  he  disarmed 
criticism,  which  in  the  beginning  took  it  all  for 
a  new  game,  an  "  honesty  racket,"  of  which  it 
had  not  got  the  hang,  and  could  not, — con- 
founded his  enemies,  who  grew  in  number  as 
his  success  grew  and  sat  up  nights  hatching  out 
plots  by  which  to  trip  him.  Roosevelt  strode 
through  them  all,  kicking  their  snares  right  and 
left,  half  the  time  not  dreaming  that  they  were 
there,  and  laughing  contemptuously  when  he 
saw  them.  I  remember  a  mischief-maker  whose 
mission  in  life  seemed  to  be  to  tell  lies  at  head- 
quarters and  carry  tales,  setting  people  at  odds 
where  he  could.  He  was  not  an  official,  but  an 
outsider,  an  idler  with  nothing  better  to  do, 
but  a  man  with  a  "  pull "  among  politicians. 
Roosevelt  came  upon  some  of  his  lies,  traced 
them  to  their  source,  and  met  the  man  at  the 
door  the  next  time  he  came  nosing  around.  I 
was  there  and  heard  what  passed. 

"  Mr.  So-and-so."  said  the  President  of  the 

[148] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

Board,  "  I  hr,ve  heard  this  thing,  and  I  am 
told  you  said  it.  You  know,  of  course,  that  it 
is  a  lie.  I  shall  send  at  once  for  the  man  who 
says  he  heard  you  tell  it,  so  that  you  may  meet 
him;  because  you  know  if  you  did  say  it  we 
cannot  have  you  around  here  any  more."  The 
man  got  out  at  once  and  never  came  back  while 
Roosevelt  was  there. 

It  was  all  as  simple  as  that,  perfectly  open 
and  aboveboard,  and  I  think  he  was  buncoed 
less  than  any  of  his  "  wise "  predecessors. 
There  was  that  in  his  trust  in  uncorrupted  hu- 
man nature  that  brought  out  a  like  response. 
There  always  is,  thank  heaven !  You  get  what 
you  give  in  trust  and  affection.  The  man  who 
trusts  no  one  has  his  faith  justified;  no  one  will 
trust  him,  and  he  will  find  plenty  to  try  their 
wits  upon  him.  Once  in  a  while  Roosevelt's 
sympathies  betrayed  him,  but  not  to  his  dis- 
credit. They  laugh  yet  in  the  section-rooms  at 
the  police  stations  over  the  trick  played  upon 
him  by  a  patrolman  whose  many  peccadilloes 
had  brought  him  at  last  to  the  "  jumping-off 
place."  This  time  he  was  to  be  dismissed.  The 
President  said  so;  there  was  no  mercy.  But 
the  policeman  had  "  piped  him  off."  He  knew 

[148] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

his  soft  spot.  In  the  morning,  when  the  Com- 
missioner came  fresh  from  his  romp  with  his 
own  babies,  there  confronted  him  eleven  young- 
sters of  all  ages,  howling  dolefully.  The 
doomed  policeman  mutely  introduced  them 
with  a  sorrowful  gesture, — motherless  all. 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  stern  gaze  softened.  What, 
no  mother?  all  these  children!  Go,  then,  and 
take  one  more  chance,  one  last  chance.  And 
the  policeman  went  out  with  the  eleven  chil- 
dren which  were  not  his  at  all.  He  had  bor- 
rowed them,  all  but  two,  from  the  neighbors 
in  his  tenement. 

But  there  is  no  malice  in  the  joking  at  his 
expense,  rather  affection.  It  is  no  mean  trib- 
ute to  human  nature,  even  in  the  policeman's 
uniform,  that  for  the  men  who  tricked  Roose- 
velt in  the  Police  Board — his  recreant  col- 
leagues— and  undid  what  they  could  of  his 
work,  there  survives  in  the  Department  the  ut- 
most contempt  and  detestation,  while  Roose- 
velt is  held  in  the  heartiest  regard  that  is  not  in 
the  least  due  to  his  exalted  station,  but  to  a 
genuine  reverence  for  the  man's  character  as 
Mulberry  Street  saw  it  when  it  was  put  to  the 
severest  test. 

[150] 


IN  MULBERRY   STREET 

I  shall  have,  after  all,  to  ask  those  who  would 
know  him  at  this  period  of  his  life,  as  I 
knew  him,  to  read  "  The  Making  of  an  Ameri- 
can," because  I  should  never  get  through  were 
I  to  try  to  tell  it  all.  He  made,  as  I  said,  a 
large  part  of  my  life  in  Mulberry  Street,  and 
by  far  the  best  part.  When  he  went,  I  had  no 
heart  in  it.  Of  the  strong  hand  he  lent  in  the 
battle  with  the  slum,  as  a  member  of  the  Health 
Board,  that  book  wiU  tell  them.  We  had  all 
the  ammunition  for  the  fight,  the  law  and  all, 
but  there  was  no  one  who  dared  begin  it  till  he 
came.  Then  the  batteries  opened  fire  at  once, 
and  it  is  largely  due  to  him  and  his  unhesitat- 
ing courage  that  we  have  got  as  far  as  we  have. 
And  that  means  something  beyond  the  ordi- 
nary, for  we  were  acting  under  an  untried  law, 
the  failure  of  which  might  easily  involve  a  man 
in  suits  for  very  great  damages.  Indeed,  Mr. 
Roosevelt  was  sued  twice  by  landlords  whose 
tenements  he  destroyed.  One  characteristic  in- 
cident survives  in  my  memory  from  that  day. 
An  important  office  was  to  be  filled  in  the 
Health  Department,  about  which  I  knew. 
There  were  two  candidates:  one  the  son  of  a 
janitor,  educated  in  the  public  schools,  faithful 

[151] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and  able,  but  without  polish  or  special  fitness; 
the  other  a  college  man,  a  graduate  of  how  many 
foreign  schools  of  learning  I  don't  know,  a  gen- 
tleman of  travel,  of  refinement.  He  was  the 
man  for  the  position,  which  included  much  con- 
tact with  the  outer  world,— so  I  judged,  and  so 
did  others.  Roosevelt  had  the  deciding  vote. 
We  urged  our  man  strongly  upon  him.  He 
saw  the  force  of  our  arguments,  and  yielded, 
but  slowly  and  most  reluctantly.  His  out- 
spoken preference  was  for  the  janitor's  son, 
who  had  fought  himself  up  to  the  point  where 
he  could  compete.  And  he  was  right,  after  all. 
The  other  was  a  failure ;  he  was  over-educated. 
I  was  glad,  for  Roosevelt's  sake  as  well  as  for 
my  own,  when  in  after  years  the  janitor's  son 
took  his  place  and  came  to  his  own. 

One  incident,  which  I  have  told  before,  I 
cannot  forbear  setting  down  here  again,  for 
without  it  even  this  fragmentary  record  would 
be  too  incomplete.  I  mean  his  meeting  with 
the  labor  men  who  were  having  constant  trou- 
ble with  the  police  over  their  strikes,  their 
pickets,  etc.  They  made  me  much  too  proud 
of  them,  both  he  and  they,  for  me  ever  to  for- 
get that.  Roosevelt  saw  that  the  trouble  was 

[152] 


IN   MULBERRY   STREET 

in  their  not  understanding  one  another,  and  he 
asked  the  labor  leaders  to  meet  him  at  Claren- 
don Hall  to  talk  it  over.  Together  we  trudged 
through  a  blinding  snow-storm  to  the  meeting. 
This  was  at  the  beginning  of  things,  when  the 
town  had  not  yet  got  the  bearings  of  the  man. 
The  strike  leaders  thought  they  had  to  do  with 
an  ambitious  politician,  and  they  tried  bluster. 
They  would  do  so  and  so  unless  the  police  were 
compliant;  and  they  watched  to  get  him 
placed.  They  had  not  long  to  wait.  Roose- 
velt called  a  halt,  short  and  sharp. 

"  Gentlemen!  "  he  said,  "  we  want  to  under- 
stand one  another.  That  was  my  object  in 
coming  here.  Remember,  please,  that  he  who 
counsels  violence  does  the  cause  of  labor  the 
poorest  service.  Also,  he  loses  his  case.  Under- 
stand distinctly  that  order  will  be  kept.  The 
police  will  keep  it.  Now,  gentlemen !  " 

There  was  a  moment's  amazed  suspense,  and 
then  the  hall  rang  with  their  cheers.  They  had 
him  placed  then,  for  they  knew  a  man  when 
they  saw  him.  And  he,— he  went  home  proud 
and  happy,  for  his  trust  in  his  fellow-man  was 
justified. 

He  said,  when  it  was  all  over,  that  there  was 

[153] 


THEODORE.  ROOSEVELT 

no  call  at  all  for  any  genius  in  the  work  of 
administering  the  police  force,  nor,  indeed,  for 
any  unusual  qualities,  but  just  common  sense, 
common  honesty,  energy,  resolution,  and  readi- 
ness to  learn;  which  was  probably  so.  They 
are  the  qualities  he  brought  to  everything  he 
ever  put  his  hands  to.  But  if  he  learned  some- 
thing in  that  work  that  helped  round  off  the 
man  in  him,— though  it  was  not  all  sweetness  or 
light, — he  taught  us  much  more.  His  plain  per- 
formance of  a  plain  duty,  the  doing  the  right 
because  it  was  the  right,  taught  us  a  lesson  we 
stood  in  greater  need  of  than  of  any  other. 
Roosevelt's  campaign  for  the  reform  of  the 
police  force  became  the  moral  issue  of  the  day. 
It  swept  the  cobwebs  out  of  our  civic  brains, 
and  blew  the  dust  from  our  eyes,  so  that  we  saw 
clearly  where  all  had  been  confusion  before: 
saw  straight,  rather.  We  rarely  realize,  in  these 
latter  days,  how  much  of  our  ability  to  fight 
for  good  government,  and  our  hope  of  winning 
the  fight,  is  due  to  the  campaign  of  honesty 
waged  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  in  Mulberry 
Street. 


[164] 


VII 
THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 


VII 
THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

IT  sounded  like  old  times,  to  us  who  had 
stayed  behind  in  Mulberry  Street,  when, 
within  a  few  months  after  his  departure 
for  Washington,  the  wail  came  from  down 
there  that  Roosevelt  was  playing  at  war  with 
the  ships,  that  he  was  spoiling  for  a  row,  and 
did  not  care  what  it  cost.  It  seems  he  had 
been  asking  a  million  dollars  or  so  for  target 
practice,  and,  when  he  got  that,  demanding 
more— another  half  million.  I  say  it  sounded 
like  old  times,  for  that  was  the  everlasting  re- 
frain of  the  grievance  while  he  ran  the  police: 
there  was  never  to  be  any  rest  or  peace  where  he 
was.  No,  there  was  not.  In  Mulberry  Street 
it  was  his  business  to  make  war  on  the  scoun- 
drels who  had  wrecked  the  force  and  brought 
disgrace  upon  our  city.  To  Washington  he 

[157] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

had  gone  to  sharpen  the  tools  of  war.  War  he 
knew  must  come.  They  all  knew  it ;  it  was  his 
business  to  prepare  for  it,  since  the  first  and 
hardest  blows  must  be  struck  on  the  sea. 

Here  let  me  stop  a  moment  to  analyze  his 
attitude  toward  this  war  that  was  looming  on 
the  horizon  even  before  he  left  Mulberry 
Street.  It  was  perfectly  simple,  as  simple  as 
anything  he  ever  did  or  said,  to  any  one  who 
had  ever  taken  the  trouble  to  "  think  him  out." 
I  had  followed  him  to  Washington  to  watch 
events  for  my  paper,  and  there  joined  the  "  war 
party,"  as  President  McKinley  called  Roose- 
velt and  Leonard  Wood,  poking  fun  at  them 
in  his  quiet  way.  There  was  not  a  trace  of  self- 
seeking  or  of  jingoism  in  Roosevelt's  attitude, 
unless  you  identify  jingoism  with  the  stalwart 
Americanism  that  made  him  write  these  words 
the  year  before: 

"  Every  true  patriot,  every  man  of  states- 
manlike habit,  should  look  forward  to  the  time 
when  not  a  single  European  power  shall  hold  a 
foot  of  American  soil."  Not,  he  added,  that  it 
was  necessary  to  question  the  title  of  foreign 
powers  to  present  holdings;  but  "  it  certainly 
will  become  necessary  if  the  timid  and  selfish 

[158] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

peace-at-any-price  men  have  their  way,  and 
if  the  United  States  fails  to  check,  at  the  out- 
set, European  aggrandizement  on  this  con- 
tinent." 

That  was  one  end  of  it,  the  political  one,  if 
you  please ;  the  Monroe  Doctrine  in  its  briefest 
and  simplest  form.  Spain  had  by  outrageous 
mismanagement  of  its  West  Indian  colonies 
proved  herself  unfit,  and  had  forfeited  the 
right  to  remain.  The  mismanagement  had  be- 
come a  scandal  upon  our  own  shores.  Every 
year  the  yellow  fever  that  was  brewed  in  Cuban 
filth  crossed  over  and  desolated  a  thousand 
homes  in  our  Southern  States.  If  proof  were 
wanted  that  it  was  mismanagement  that  did  it, 
events  have  more  than  supplied  it  since,  and 
justified  the  war  of  humanity. 

Plain  humanity  was  the  other  end  of  it, 
and  the  biggest.  I  know,  for  I  saw  how  it 
worked  upon  his  mind.  I  was  in  Washington 
when  a  German  cigar-manufacturer,  whose 
business  took  him  once  or  twice  a  year  to  Cuba, 
came  to  the  capital  seeking  an  interview  with 
Senator  Lodge,  his  home  senator,  since  he  was 
from  Boston.  I  can  see  him  now  sitting  in  the 
committee-room  and  telling  how  on  his  last 

[159] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

trip  he  had  traveled  to  some  inland  towns  where 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  doing  business,  but  where 
now  all  had  been  laid  waste ;  how  when  he  sat 
down  in  the  inn  to  eat  such  food  as  he  could 
get,  a  famished  horde  of  gaunt,  half -naked 
women,  with  starving  babies  at  barren  breasts, 
crept  up  like  dogs  to  his  chair,  righting  for  the 
crumbs  that  fell  from  his  plate.  Big  tears 
rolled  down  the  honest  German's  face  as  he 
told  of  it.  He  could  not  eat,  he  could  not 
sleep  until  he  had  gone  straight  to  Washing- 
ton to  tell  there  what  he  had  witnessed.  I  can 
see  the  black  look  come  into  Roosevelt's  face 
and  hear  him  muttering  under  his  breath,  for 
he,  too,  had  little  children  whom  he  loved. 
And  the  old  anger  wells  up  in  me  at  the 
thought  of  those  who  would  have  stayed  our 
hand.  Better  a  thousand  times  war  with  all  its 
horrors  than  a  hell  like  that.  That  was  mur- 
der, and  of  women  and  innocent  children. 
The  war  that  avenges  such  infamy  I  hail  as  the 
messenger  of  wrath  of  an  outraged  God. 

The  war  was  a  moral  issue  with  him,  as  in- 
deed it  was  with  all  of  us  who  understood.  It 
was  with  such  facts  as  these— and  there  was 
no  lack  of  them— in  mind  and  heart  that  he 

[160] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

responded  hotly  to  Senator  Hanna  pleading 
for  peace  for  the  sake  of  the  country's  com- 
merce and  prosperity,  that  much  as  he  appre- 
ciated those  blessings,  the  honor  of  the  country 
was  of  more  account  than  temporary  business 
prosperity.  It  has  slipped  my  mind  what  was 
the  particular  occasion, — some  club  gathering, 
—but  I  have  not  forgotten  the  profound  im- 
pression the  Naval  Secretary's  words  made  as 
he  insisted  that  our  country  could  better  afford 
to  lose  a  thousand  of  the  bankers  that  have 
added  to  its  wealth  than  one  Farragut ;  that  it 
were  better  for  it  never  to  have  had  all  the  rail- 
road magnates  that  have  built  it  up,  great  as 
is  their  deserving,  than  to  have  lost  Grant  and 
Sherman ;  better  that  it  had  never  known  com- 
mercial greatness  than  that  it  should  miss  from 
its  history  one  Lincoln.  Unless  the  moral  over- 
balance the  material,  we  are  indeed  riding  for 
a  fall  in  all  our  pride. 

So  he  made  ready  for  the  wrath  to  come. 
And  now  his  early  interest  in  naval  affairs,  that 
gave  us  his  first  book,  bore  fruit.  When  the 
work  of  preparation  was  over,  and  Roosevelt 
was  bound  for  the  war  to  practice  what  he  had 
preached,  his  chief,  Secretary  Long,  said,  in 

[161] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

bidding  him  good-by,  that  he  had  been  literally 
invaluable  in  his  place,  and  that  the  navy  would 
feel  the  stimulus  of  his  personality  for  a  long 
time.  His  industry  was  prodigious.  He 
bought  ships  for  the  invasion  of  Cuba,  and 
fitted  them  out.  He  recruited  crews  and  shot 
away  fortunes  with  the  big  guns — recklessly 
shouted  the  critics.  He  knew  better.  His  ex- 
perience as  a  hunter  had  taught  him  that  the 
best  gun  in  the  world  was  wasted  on  a  man  who 
did  not  know  how  to  use  it.  The  Spaniards 
found  that  out  later.  Roosevelt  loaded  up 
with  ammunition  and  with  coal.  When  at  last 
the  war  broke  out,  Dewey  found  everything  he 
needed  at  Hongkong  where  he  sought  it,  and 
was  able  to  sail  across  to  Manila  a  week  before 
they  expected  him  there.  And  then  we  got  the 
interest  on  the  gun-practice  that  had  fright- 
ened the  economical  souls  at  home. 

In  Mulberry  Street  it  was  corruption  that 
defied  him;  now  it  was  the  stubborn  red  tape 
of  a  huge  department  that  dragged  and 
dragged  at  his  feet,  and  threatened  to  snare 
him  up  at  every  second  step  he  took, — the  most 
disheartening  of  human  experiences.  The  men 
he  came  quickly  to  like.  "  They  are  a  fine  lot 

[162] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

of  fellows,"  he  wrote  to  me,  "  these  naval  men. 
You  would  take  to  them  at  sight."  Of  the 
other  he  never  spoke,  but  I  can  imagine  how 
it  must  have  nagged  him.  To  this  day,  when 
I  have  anything  I  want  to  find  out  or  do  in  the 
Navy  Department,  it  seems  flatly  impossible 
to  make  a  short  cut  to  the  thing  I  want.  So 
many  bureaus,  so  many  chief  clerks,  and  so 
many  what-you-may-call-'ems  have  to  pass 
upon  it.  It  is  the  way  of  the  world,  I  suppose, 
to  go  on  magnifying  and  exalting  the  barrel 
where  the  staves  are  men  with  their  little  in- 
terests and  conceits,  until  what  it  is  made  to 
hold  is  of  secondary  importance  or  less.  In  the 
end  he  burst  through  it  as  he  did  through  the 
jobs  the  police  conspirators  tried  to  put  up  on 
him ;  kicked  it  all  to  pieces  and  went  on  his  way. 
A  new  light  shone  through  the  dusty  old 
windows.  For  generations,  since  steam  came 
to  replace  sail,  there  had  been  a  contention 
between  the  line  and  the  engineer  corps,  as 
to  rank  and  pay,  that  cut  into  the  heart  of 
the  navy.  It  was  the  fight  of  the  old  against 
the  new  that  goes  on  in  all  days.  The  old 
line-officer  was  loath  to  give  equal  place  to 
the  engineer,  who,  when  he  was  young,  was 

[163] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

but  an  auxiliary,  an  experiment.  The  place  of 
honor  was  still  to  be  on  the  deck,  though 
long  since  the  place  of  responsibility  had 
moved  to  the  engine-room.  The  engineer  in- 
sisted upon  recognition;  met  the  other  upon 
the  floor  of  Congress  and  checkmated  him  in 
his  schemes  of  legislation.  The  quarrel  was 
bitter,  irreconcilable;  on  every  ship  there  were 
hostile  camps.  Neither  could  make  headway 
for  the  other.  Roosevelt,  as  chairman  of  a 
board  to  reconcile  the  differences  that  were 
older  than  the  navy  itself  as  it  is  to-day, 
steered  it  successfully  between  the  two  fatal 
reefs  and  made  peace.  Under  his  "  personnel 
bill "  each  side  obtained  its  rights,  and,  with 
the  removal  of  the  pretext  for  future  quarrels, 
the  navy  was  greatly  strengthened.  Cadets 
now  receive  the  same  training;  the  American 
naval  officer  in  the  next  war  will  be  equally 
capable  of  commanding  on  deck  and  of  mend- 
ing a  broken  engine. 

When  it  came  to  picking  out  the  man  who 
was  to  command  in  the  East,  where  the  blow 
must  be  struck,  Roosevelt  picked  Dewey.  They 
laughed  at  him.  Dewey  was  a  "  dude,"  they 
said.  It  seems  the  red  tape  had  taken  notice  of 

[164] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

the  fact  that  the  Commodore  was  always  trim 
and  neat,  and,  judging  him  by  its  own  stan- 
dard, thought  that  was  all.  Roosevelt  told 
them  no,  he  would  fight.  And  he  might  wear 
whatever  kind  of  collar  he  chose,  so  long  as  he 
did  that.  I  remember,  when  Dewey  was  gone 
with  his  ships,  the  exultation  with  which  Roose- 
velt spoke  of  the  choice.  We  were  walking 
down  Connecticut  Avenue,  with  his  bicycle  be- 
tween us,  discussing  Dewey.  Leonard  Wood 
came  out  of  a  side  street  and  joined  us.  His 
mind  was  on  Cuba.  Roosevelt,  with  prophetic 
eye,  beheld  Manila  and  the  well-stocked  am- 
munition-bins in  Chinese  waters. 

"  Dewey,"  he  said,  "  is  the  man  for  the  place. 
He  has  a  lion  heart." 

I  guess  none  of  us  feels  like  disputing  his 
judgment  at  this  day,  any  more  than  we  do 
the  wisdom  of  the  gun-practice. 

When  Dewey  was  in  the  East,  it  was  Roose- 
velt's influence  in  the  naval  board  that  kept 
his  fleet  intact.  The  Olympia  had  been  ordered 
home.  Roosevelt  secured  the  repeal  of  the 
order.  "  Keep  the  Olympia"  he  cabled  him, 
and  "  keep  full  of  coal."  The  resistless  energy 
of  the  man  carried  all  before  it  till  the  day 

[165] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

when  orders  were  cabled  under  the  Pacific  to 
the  man  with  the  lion  heart  to  go  in  and 
smash  the  enemy.  "  Capture  or  destroy!  "  We 
know  the  rest. 

Roosevelt's  work  was  done.  "  There  is  no- 
thing more  for  me  to  do  here,"  he  said.  "  I  've 
got  to  get  into  the  fight  myself." 

They  told  him  to  stay,  he  was  needed  where 
he  was.  But  he  was  right :  his  work  was  done. 
It  was  to  prepare  for  war.  With  the  fighting 
of  the  ships  he  had,  could  have,  nothing  to  do. 
Merely  to  sit  in  an  office  and  hold  down  a  job, 
a  title,  or  a  salary,  was  not  his  way.  He  did 
not  go  lightly.  His  wife  was  lying  sick,  with  a 
little  baby;  his  other  children  needed  him.  I 
never  had  the  good  fortune  to  know  a  man  who 
loves  his  children  more  devotedly  and  more 
sensibly  than  he.  There  was  enough  to  keep 
him  at  home;  there  were  plenty  to  plead  with 
him.  I  did  myself,  for  I  hated  to  see  him  go. 
His  answer  was  as  if  his  father  might  have 
spoken:  "  I  have  done  all  I  could  to  bring  on 
the  war,  because  it  is  a  just  war,  and  the  sooner 
we  meet  it  the  better.  Now  that  it  has  come, 
I  have  no  business  to  ask  others  to  do  the  fight- 
ing and  stay  at  home  myself." 

[166] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

It  was  right,  and  he  went.  I  have  not  for- 
gotten that  gray  afternoon  in  early  May  when 
I  went  with  him  across  the  river  to  the  train 
that  was  to  carry  him  and  his  horse  South. 
He  had  made  his  will;  the  leave-taking  was 
over  and  had  left  its  mark.  There  was  in  him 
no  trace  of  the  "  spoiling  for  a  fight  "  that  for 
the  twentieth  time  was  cast  up  against  him. 
He  looked  soberly,  courageously  ahead  to  a 
new  and  untried  experience,  hopeful  of  the 
glad  day  that  should  see  our  arms  victorious 
and  the  bloody  usurper  driven  from  Cuba. 
"  I  won't  be  long."  He  waved  his  hand  and 
was  gone;  and  to  me  the  leaden  sky  seemed 
drearier,  the  day  more  desolate  than  before. 

Two  weary  months  dragged  their  slow 
length  along.  There  had  been  fighting  in 
Cuba.  Every  morning  my  wife  and  I  plotted 
each  to  waylay  the  newsboy  to  get  the  paper 
first  and  make  sure  he  was  safe  before  the 
other  should  see  it.  And  then  one  bright  and 
blessed  July  morning,  when  the  land  was  ring- 
ing with  the  birthday  salute  of  the  nation,  she 
came  with  shining  eyes,  waving  the  paper,  in 
which  we  read  together  of  the  charge  on  San 
Juan  Hill;  how  the  Rough-Riders  charged, 

[167] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

with  him  at  their  head,  through  a  hail  of  Span- 
ish bullets,  the  men  dropping  by  twos  and 
threes  as  they  ran. 

"  When  they  came 1  to  the  open,  smooth 
hillside  there  was  no  protection.  Bullets  were 
raining  down  at  them,  and  shot  and  shells  from 
the  batteries  were  sweeping  everything.  There 
was  a  moment's  hesitation,  and  then  came  the 
order :  '  Forward !  charge ! '  Lieutenant-Colo- 
nel Roosevelt  led,  waving  his  sword.  Out 
into  the  open  the  men  went,  and  up  the  hill. 
Death  to  every  man  seemed  certain.  The 
crackle  of  the  Mauser  rifles  was  continuous. 
Out  of  the  brush  came  the  riders.  Up,  up  they 
went,  with  the  colored  troops  alongside  of 
them,  not  a  man  flinching,  and  forming  as 
they  ran.  Roosevelt  was  a  hundred  feet  in 
the  lead.  Up,  up  they  went  in  the  face  of 
death,  men  dropping  from  the  ranks  at 
every  step.  The  Rough-Riders  acted  like 
veterans.  It  was  an  inspiring  sight  and  an 
awful  one. 

"  Astounded  by  the  madness  of  the  rush,  the 
Spaniards  exposed  themselves.  This  was  a 
fatal  mistake.  The  Tenth  Cavalry  (the  col- 

1  This  was  the  account^we  read  in  the  New  York  "  Sun." 
[168] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

ored  troops)  picked  them  off  like  ducks  and 
rushed  on,  up  and  up. 

"  The  more  Spaniards  were  killed,  the  more 
seemed  to  take  their  places.  The  rain  of  shells 
and  bullets  doubled.  Men  dropped  faster  and 
faster,  but  others  took  their  places.  Roosevelt 
sat  erect  on  his  horse,  holding  his  sword  and 
shouting  for  his  men  to  follow  him.  Finally, 
his  horse  was  shot  from  under  him,  but  he 
landed  on  his  feet  and  continued  calling  for  his 
men  to  advance.  He  charged  up  the  hill  afoot. 

"  It  seemed  an  age  to  the  men  who  were 
watching,  and  to  the  Rough-Riders  the  hill 
must  have  seemed  miles  high.  But  they  were 
undaunted.  They  went  on,  firing  as  fast  as 
their  guns  would  work. 

"  At  last  the  top  of  the  hill  was  reached.  The 
Spaniards  in  the  trenches  could  still  have  anni- 
hilated the  Americans,  but  the  Yankees'  daring 
dazed  them.  They  wavered  for  an  instant,  and 
then  turned  and  ran. 

"  The  position  was  won  and  the  block-house 
captured.  ...  In  the  rush  more  than  half  of 
the  Rough-Riders  were  wounded." 

In  how  many  American  homes  was  that 
splendid  story  read  that  morning  with  a  thrill 

[169] 


THEODORE  .ROOSEVELT 

never  quite  to  be  got  over!  We  read  it  toge- 
ther, she  and  I,  excited,  breathless;  and  then 
we  laid  down  the  paper  and  gave  two  such 
rousing  cheers  as  had  n't  been  heard  in  Rich- 
mond Hill  that  Fourth  of  July  morning,  one 
for  the  flag  and  one  for  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
What  was  breakfast?  The  war  was  won  and 
over! 

We  live  in  a  queer  world.  One  man  sees  the 
glorious  painting,  priceless  for  all  time;  the 
other  but  the  fly-speck  on  the  frame.  A  year 
or  two  after,  some  one,  I  think  he  was  an  editor, 
wrote  to  ask  me  if  the  dreadful  thing  was  true 
that  in  the  rush  up  that  hill  Roosevelt  said, 
"Hell!"  I  don't  know  what  I  replied-I 
want  to  forget  it.  I  know  I  said  it,  anyhow. 
But,  great  Scott!  think  of  it. 

Of  that  war  and  of  his  regiment,  from  the 
day  it  was  evolved,  uniformed,  armed,  and 
equipped,  through  "  ceaseless  worrying  of  ex- 
cellent bureaucrats  who  had  no  idea  how  to 
do  things  quickly  or  how  to  meet  an  emer- 
gency," *  all  through  the  headlong  race  with  a 
worse  enemy  than  the  one  in  front, — the  ma- 

1 1  am  quoting  "  The  Rough- Riders. "     It  seems,  then,  the 

navy  has  no  patent  on  red  tape.    I  thought  as  much. 

[170] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

laria,  upon  which  the  Spaniards  counted  openly 
as  their  grewsome  ally, — down  to  the  day  when, 
the  army's  work  done,  Colonel  Roosevelt 
"  wrecked  his  career  "  finally  and  for  good,  by 
demanding  its  recall  home,  he  himself  has  told 
the  story  in  "  The  Rough-Riders. "  Every 
school-boy  in  the  land  knows  it.  The  Rough- 
Riders  came  out  of  the  heroic  past  of  our  coun- 
try's history,  held  the  forefront  of  the  stage 
for  three  brief  months,  and  melted  back  into 
college,  and  camp,  and  mine  with  never  a  rip- 
ple. But  they  left  behind  them  a  mark  which 
this  generation  will  not  see  effaced.  To  those 
who  think  it  a  sudden  ambitious  thought,  a 
"  streak  of  luck,"  I  commend  this  reference  to 
the  "  rifle-bearing  horsemen "  on  page  249 
of  the  second  volume  of  his  "  Winning  of  the 
West,"  written  quite  ten  years  before:  "  They 
were  brave  and  hardy,  able  to  tread  their  way 
unerringly  through  the  forests,  and  fond  of 
surprises;  and  though  they  always  fought  on 
foot,  they  moved  on  horseback,  and  therefore 
with  great  celerity.  Their  operations  should 
be  carefully  studied  by  all  who  wish  to  learn  the 
possibilities  of  mounted  riflemen."  Before  he 
or  any  one  else  dreamed  of  the  war,  he  had 

[171] 


THEODORE ,  ROOSEVELT 

studied  and  thought  it  all  out,  and  when  the 
chance  came  he  was  ready  for  it  and  took  it. 
That  is  all  there  ever  was  in  "  Roosevelt's 
luck  " ;  and  that  is  about  all  there  is  in  this  luck 
business,  anyhow,  as  I  have  said  before. 

The  chance  came  to  one  man  beside  him  who 
was  ready,  and  the  world  is  the  better  for  it. 
I  saw  the  growing  friendship  between  the  two 
that  year  in  Washington,  and  was  glad;  for 
Leonard  Wood  is  another  man  to  tie  to,  as  one 
soon  finds  out  who  knows  him.  They  met  there 
for  the  first  time,  but  in  one  brief  year  they 
grew  to  be  such  friends  that  when  the  command 
of  the  regiment  was  offered  Roosevelt,  he  asked 
for  second  place  under  Wood;  for  Wood  had 
seen  service  in  the  field,  as  Roosevelt  had  not. 
He  had  earned  the  medal  of  honor  for  un- 
daunted courage  and  great  ability  in  the  ar- 
duous campaigns  against  the  Apaches.  Both 
earned  their  promotion  in  battle  afterward. 
I  liked  to  see  them  together  because  they  are 
men  of  the  same  strong  type.  When  Roosevelt 
writes  of  his  friend  that,  "  like  so  many  of  the 
gallant  fighters  with  whom  it  was  later  my 
good  fortune  to  serve,  he  combined  in  a  very 
high  degree  the  qualities  of  entire  manliness 

[172] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

with  entire  uprightness  and  cleanliness  of  char- 
acter; it  was  a  pleasure  to  deal  with  a  man  of 
high  ideals  who  scorned  everything  mean  and 
base,  and  who  also  possessed  tfiose  robust  and 
hardy  qualities  of  body  and<mmd,  for  the  lack 
of  which  no  merely  negative  virtue  can  ever 
atone  " — he  draws  as  good  a  picture  of  himself 
as  his  best  friend  could  have  done.  While  the 
Roosevelts  and  the  Woods  come  when  they  are 
needed,  as  they  always  have  come,  our  coun- 
try is  safe. 

Together  they  sailed  away  in  the  spring- 
time, southward  through  the  tropic  seas,  to- 
ward the  unknown.  "  We  knew  not  whither 
we  were  bound,  nor  what  we  were  to  do;  but 
we  believed  that  the  nearing  future  held  for  us 
many  chances  of  death  and  hardship,  of  honor 
and  renown.  If  we  failed,  we  would  share 
the  fate  of  all  who  fail ;  but  we  were  sure  that 
we  would  win,  that  we  should  score  the  first 
great  triumph  in  a  mighty  world-movement." 
The  autumn  days  were  shortening  when  I 
stood  at  Montauk  Point  scanning  the  sea  for 
the  vessels  that  should  bring  them  back. 
Within  the  year  one  was  to  sit  at  Albany,  the 
Governor  of  his  own,  the  Empire  State;  the 

[173] 


THEODORE  -ROOSEVELT 

other  in  the  palace  of  the  conquered  tyrant 
on  the  rescued  isle.  For  Roosevelt  committees 
were  waiting,  honors  and  high  office.  The 
country  rang  with  his  name.  But  when  he 
stepped  ashore  his  concern  was  for  his  own  at 
home, — for  his  wife;  and  when  I  told  him  that 
I  had  brought  her  down  to  see  his  triumph, 
he  thanked  me  with  a  handshake  that  told  me 
how  glad  he  was. 

I  see  him  now  riding  away  over  the  hill,  in  his 
Rough-Rider  uniform,  to  the  hospital  where  his 
men  lay  burning  up  with  the  fever.  Wherever 
he  came,  confusion,  incapacity,  gave  way  to 
order  and  efficiency.  Things  came  round  at 
once.  So  did  his  men.  The  sight  of  his  face 
was  enough  to  make  them  rally  for  another 
fight  with  the  enemy.  They  had  seen  him 
walking  calmly  on  top  of  the  earth  wall  when, 
in  the  small  hours  of  the  morning,  drenched  by 
pouring  rains,  chilled  to  the  bone,  and  starving 
in  the  trenches,  they  were  roused  by  the  alarm 
that  the  Spaniards  were  coming,  and  the  sight 
made  them  heroes.  They  had  heard  his  cheer- 
ing voice  when  the  surgeons  were  dressing  the 
wounded  by  candle-light,  after  the  fight  at  Las 
Guasimas:  "  Boys,  if  there  is  a  man  at  home 

[174] 


THE  CLASH  OF  WAR 

who  would  n't  be  proud  to  change  places  with 
you  he  is  not  worth  his  salt,  and  he  is  not  a 
true  American  " ;  and  the  ring  of  it  was  with 
them  yet.  So  they  took  heart  of  hope  and  got 
well,  and  went  back  to  those  who  loved  them, 
even  as  did  he  for  a  little  while.  Then  we 
needed  him  again,  and  he  came  when  he  was 
called. 


[175] 


VIII 
ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 


VIII 
ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

THERE  was  a  thunder  of  hoofs  on  the 
road  that  descends  the  slope  from 
Camp  Wikoff  to  the  Life-Saving  Sta- 
tion, and  a  squad  of  horsemen  swarmed  over 
the  hill.  A  stocky,  strongly  built  man  on  a  big 
horse  was  in  the  lead.  In  his  worn  uniform 
and  gray  army  hat  he  suggested  irresistibly,  as 
he  swept  by,  Sheridan  on  his  wild  ride  to 
"  Winchester,  twenty  miles  away."  They  were 
gone  like  the  wind,  leaping  the  muddy  ford  at 
the  foot  of  the  hill  and  galloping  madly  across 
the  sands.  My  horse,  that  had  been  jogging 
along  sedately  enough  till  then,  caught  the 
spirit  of  the  rush  and  made  after  them,  hard  as 
he  could  go.  On  the  beach  we  caught  up  with 
them,  riding  in  and  out  of  the  surf  with  shouts 
of  delight,  like  so  many  centaurs  at  play.  The 

[179] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

salt  spray  dashed  over  them  in  showers  of  shin- 
ing white,  but  they  yelled  back  defiance  at  the 
ocean.  Their  leader  watched  them  from  his 
horse,  and  laughed  loudly  at  their  sport. 

They  were  Roosevelt  and  his  men.  "  Roose- 
velt's Rough-Riders  "  belong  to  history  now, 
with  the  war  in  which  they  held  such  a  pic- 
turesque place.  I  had  seen  them  go,  full  of 
youthful  spirits,  eager  for  the  fray,  and  it  was 
my  privilege  to  hear  the  last  speech  their  Colo- 
nel made  to  them  on  the  night  when  the  news 
of  the  disbandment  came.  He  had  ridden  up 
from  the  Commanding  General's  quarters  with 
the  message,  and,  calling  his  men  about  him  in 
the  broad  street  facing  the  officers'  tents,  told 
them  of  the  coming  parting. 

"  I  know  what  you  were  in  the  field,"  he 
said.  "  You  were  brave  and  strong.  I  ask 
now  of  you  that  every  man  shall  go  back  and 
serve  his  country  as  well  in  peace  as  he  did  in 
war.  I  can  trust  you  to  do  it." 

They  tried  to  cheer,  some  of  them,  but  they 
had  no  heart  in  it.  The  men  went  quietly  to 
their  tents  with  sober  faces,  and  I  saw  in  them 
that  which  warranted  the  trust  their  Colonel 
put  in  them. 

[180] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

The  Rough-Riders  were  not,  as  many  have 
supposed,  a  product  of  the  war  with  Spain. 
On  the  contrary,  the  mounted  riflemen  were 
the  historic  arm  of  the  United  States  from  the 
earliest  days  of  the  Nation.  In  the  War  of 
the  Revolution  they  came  out  of  the  West  and 
killed  or  captured  the  whole  of  the  British 
forces  at  King's  Mountain.  A  descendant  of 
two  of  the  three  colonels  who  commanded  them 
then  fought  with  Roosevelt  at  Las  Guasimas 
and  on  the  San  Juan  hill.  They  furnished  the 
backbone  of  Andrew  Jackson's  forces  in  the 
War  of  1812.  As  the  Texas  Rangers  they  be- 
came famous  in  the  troubles  with  Mexico. 
They  conquered  the  French  towns  on  the  Illi- 
nois, and  won  the  West  from  the  Indians  in  a 
hundred  bloody  fights.  In  the  Civil  War  they 
lost,  to  a  great  extent,  their  identity,  but  not 
their  place  in  the  van  and  the  thick  of  the  fight. 
Theodore  Roosevelt  as  a  historian  knew  their 
record  and  value ;  as  a  hunter  and  a  plainsman 
he  knew  where  to  find  the  material  with  which 
to  fill  up  the  long-broken  ranks.  It  came  at  his 
summons  from  the  plains  and  the  cattle-ranges 
of  the  great  West,  from  the  mines  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  from  the  counting-rooms  and  col- 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

leges  of  the  East,  and  from  the  hunting-trail  of 
the  wilderness,  wherever  the  spirit  of  adventure 
had  sent  young  men  out  with  the  rifle  to  hunt 
big  game  or  to  engage  in  the  outdoor  sports 
that  train  mind  and  body  to  endure  uncomplain- 
ingly the  hardships  of  campaigning.  The 
Rough-Riders  were  the  most  composite  lot  that 
ever  gathered  under  a  regimental  standard,  but 
they  were  at  the  same  time  singularly  typical  of 
the  spirit  that  conquered  a  continent  in  three 
generations,  eminently  American.  Probably 
such  another  will  never  be  got  together  again; 
in  no  other  country  on  earth  could  it  have  been 
mustered  to-day.  The  cowboy,  the  Indian 
trailer,  the  Indian  himself,  the  packer,  and  the 
hunter  who  had  sought  and  killed  the  grizzly  in 
single  combat  in  his  mountain  fastness,  touched 
elbows  with  the  New  York  policeman  who,  for 
love  of  adventure,  had  followed  his  once  chief 
to  the  war,  with  the  college  athlete,  the  football- 
player  and  the  oarsman,  the  dare-devil  moun- 
taineer of  Georgia,  fresh  from  hunting  moon- 
shiners as  a  revenue  officer,  and  with  the  society 
man,  the  child  of  luxury  and  wealth  from  the 
East,  bent  upon  proving  that  a  life  of  ease  had 
dulled  neither  his  manhood  nor  his  sense  of  our 

[182] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

common  citizenship.  They  did  it  in  a  way  that 
was  a  revelation  to  some  who  under  other  cir- 
cumstances and  in  a  different  environment 
would  have  called  them  "  dudes."  In  the  fight 
they  were  the  coolest  and  in  the  camp  fre- 
quently the  handiest  of  the  lot.  One  whose 
name  is  synonymous  with  exclusiveness  in  New 
York's  "  smart  set,"  and  who  for  bravery  in 
the  face  of  the  enemy  rose  to  command  of  his 
troop,  achieved  among  his  brother  officers  the 
reputation  of  being  handiest  at  "  washing  up  " 
after  "  grub,"  when  they  had  any.  And  it 
happened  more  than  once  on  the  long  marches 
through  the  Cuban  jungle,  when  "  Roosevelt's 
Rough-Riders,"  compelled  to  campaign  on 
foot,  in  humorous  desperation  had  taken  the 
more  fitting  title  of  "  Wood's  Weary  Walk- 
ers" to  themselves,  that  some  Eastern-bred  man 
with  normal  manners  of  languid  elegance  was 
able  to  relieve  his  hardier  Western  neighbor 
who  had  never  walked  five  miles  on  foot  in  his 
life.  When  at  the  end  of  the  march  the  college 
chap  came  trudging  up  cheerfully  carrying 
two  packs  beside  his  own  and  ready  for  the 
chores  of  camp  that  his  tired  comrade  might 
rest,  a  gap  was  closed  then  and  there  in  our  na- 

1183] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

tional  life  that  had  yawned  wider  than  it  had 
any  right  to.  More  than  all  political  argu- 
ments, more  than  all  the  preachments  of  well- 
meaning  sociologists,  did  this  brief  summer's 
campaign  contribute  to  fill  out  the  gap  between 
East  and  West,  between  North  and  South,  be- 
tween "  the  classes  and  the  masses,"  unless  I 
greatly  mistake.  It  was  not  in  the  contract, 
but  it  came  out  so  when  once  they  got  a  fair 
look  at  each  other  and  saw  that  in  truth  they 
were  brothers. 

There  were  clergymen  in  the  ranks.  I  am 
not  referring  now  to  Chaplain  Brown,  whose 
stout  defense  of  his  Western  men, — he  was 
from  Prescott,  Arizona, — when  he  thought  I 
was  attacking  them,  I  remember  with  mingled 
amusement  and  pleasure.  He  was  an  Episco- 
palian of  no  special  affiliation  with  high-church 
or  low-church  tendencies  within  his  fold. 
"  You  see,  I  don't  go  much  on  the  fringes  of 
religion,"  he  said  simply.  He  was  after  the 
genuine  article,  and  he  found  it  in  his  cowboy 
friends — real  reverence,  and  such  singing!  He 
was  holding  forth  to  me  upon  this  theme  as  we 
lay  in  the  long  grass,  when  I  ventured  to  re- 
mark that  I  had  heard  that  his  people  were 

[184] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

given  to  violence,  shooting-matches,  and  such. 
He  denied  it  hotly.  They  were  the  quietest, 
nicest  fellows ;  only  once  in  a  while,  when  a  fel- 
low was  caught  cheating  at  cards,  then — 

"  But,"  argued  the  Chaplain,  rising  on  his 
elbow  and  earnestly  pointing  a  spear  of  grass 
he  had  been  chewing  at  me,  "  when  a  man 
cheats  at  cards,  he  ought  to  be  shot,  ought  n't 
he?  Well,  then,  that  is  all." 

I  confess  to  a  certain  enjoyment  in  the 
thought  of  Chaplain  Brown's  theology  on  a 
background  of  the  Rough-Riders'  singing  at 
"  meetin'  "  in  the  woods.  The  combination 
suggests  that  first  funeral  on  the  ridge  at 
Guantanamo,  with  the  marines  growling  out 
the  responses  to  the  Chaplain's  prayer  between 
pot-shots  at  the  enemy,  flat  on  their  stomachs 
under  the  sudden  attack ;  and,  indeed,  Colonel 
Roosevelt  himself  gave  testimony  that  he  had 
seen  Chaplain  Brown  bring  in  wounded  men 
from  the  field  under  circumstances  that  were 
distinctly  stirring.  But  for  all  that,  the  Chap- 
lain is  a  digression.  The  clergymen  I  was 
thinking  of  wore  no  shoulder-straps.  They 
carried  guns.  One  of  them  came  up  to  bid 
his  Colonel  good-by  when  I  was  sitting  with 

[185] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

him.  He  was  tall  and  straight,  and  of  few 
words. 

"  That  man,"  said  Mr.  Roosevelt,  as  he 
went  across  the  field  back  to  the  camp,  "  repre- 
sents probably  the  very  best  type  of  our  people. 
He  is  a  Methodist  preacher,  of  the  old  circuit- 
rider's  stock,  strong,  fearless,  self-reliant.  His 
people  had  been  in  all  our  wars  before  him,  and 
he  came  as  a  matter  of  course.  You  should 
have  seen  him  one  morning  sitting  in  the  bomb- 
proof with  his  head  just  below  the  traverse, 
where  the  shrapnel  kept  cracking  over  his  hat. 
They  could  n't  touch  him,  as  he  knew,  and  he 
sat  there  as  unconcerned  as  if  there  were  no 
such  things  as  guns  and  battles,  breaking  the 
beans  for  his  coffee  with  the  butt  of  his  re- 
volver. He  was  n't  going  into  the  fight  with- 
out his  coffee.  He  was  a  game  preacher." 

An  hour  later,  when,  after  a  visit  to  the  two 
mascots  of  the  regiment,— Josie,  the  mountain 
lion,  and  the  eagle,  Jack,— I  was  chatting  with 
Lieutenant  Ferguson,  a  young  Englishman 
who  won  signal  distinction  in  battle,  the  flap  of 
the  tent  was  raised  and  a  tall  trooper  darkened 
the  entrance.  He  came  to  make  a  report,  and 
stood  silently  at  attention  while  the  officer  ex- 

[186] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

amined  it.  His  questions  he  answered  in  mono- 
syllables. "  That  was  Pollock,"  said  his  supe- 
rior when  he  was  gone.  "  He  is  a  full-blooded 
Pawnee.  He  has  never  anything  to  say,  but 
you  should  see  him  in  a  fight.  I  shall  never  for- 
get the  ungodly  war-whoop  he  let  out  when  we 
went  up  the  San  Juan  hill.  I  mistrust  that  it 
scared  the  Spaniards  almost  as  much  as  our 
charge  did.  I  know  that  it  almost  took  my 
breath  away." 

Such  was  the  material  of  which  the  regiment 
was  made.  Ninety-five  per  cent,  had  herded 
cattle  on  horseback,  on  the  great  plains,  at  some 
time  or  other.  A  majority  had  been  under  fire. 
The  rifle  was  their  natural  weapon.  They  were 
not  to  be  stampeded,  and  they  knew  how  read- 
ily to  find  the  range  of  the  enemy's  sharp- 
shooters, a  fact  that  rendered  them  far  more 
effective  in  a  fight  than  the  average  volunteer, 
who  had  hardly  a  speaking  acquaintance  with 
his  gun.  Ninety  per  cent,  of  the  Rough-Riders 
were  Americans  born  and  bred.  Perhaps  a 
hundred  were  of  foreign  birth — German,  Nor- 
wegian, English.  There  were  Catholics  and 
Protestants,  and  they  joined  with  equal  fervor 
in  the  singing  that  edified  Chaplain  Brown. 

[187] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

They  stood  all  on  the  same  footing.  The  old 
American  plan  ruled:  every  one  on  his  merits. 
In  the  last  batch  recommended  for  promotion 
by  Colonel  Roosevelt  for  gallantry  in  the  field 
was  a  Jew.  The  result  of  it  all  was  a  corps 
that  excited  the  admiration  of  the  regulars  who 
fought  side  by  side  with  them. 

Of  their  gameness  innumerable  stories  have 
been  told.  The  Indian  Issbell  was  shot  seven 
times  in  the  fight  at  Las  Guasimas,  but  stayed 
in  the  firing-line  to  the  end.  Private  Heffner, 
shot  through  the  body,  demanded  to  be 
propped  up  against  a  tree  and  given  his  rifle 
and  canteen.  So  fitted  out,  he  fought  on  until 
his  comrades  charged  forward  and  he  could  no 
longer  shoot  without  danger  of  hitting  them. 
They  found  him  sitting  there  dead  after  the 
fight.  The  cow-puncher  Rowland  from  Santa 
Fe  was  shot  through  the  side  and  ordered  to 
the  rear  by  Colonel  Roosevelt,  who  saw  the 
blood  dripping  from  the  wound.  He  went 
obediently  until  he  was  out  of  sight,  and  then 
sneaked  back  into  the  ranks.  After  it  was  over 
they  seized  him  and  took  him  to  the  hospital, 
where  the  surgeons  told  him  he  would  have  to 
be  shipped  north.  That  night  he  escaped  and 

[188] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

crawled  back  to  the  front  as  best  he  could.  He 
fought  beside  his  Colonel  all  through  the  San- 
tiago fight. 

It  was  predicted  that,  with  their  antecedents, 
the  Rough-Riders  could  not  be  disciplined  so 
as  to  become  effective  in  the  field;  but  exactly 
the  opposite  happened.  They  showed  the 
world  the  new  spectacle  of  a  body  of  men  who 
could  think  and  yet  be  soldiers;  who  obeyed, 
not  because  they  had  to,  but  because  it  was 
right  they  should,  and  they  liked  to.  They 
might  not  have  been  perfect  in  what  the  Chap- 
lain would  have  called  the  fringes  of  soldiering. 
The  pipe-clay  and  the  regulations,  and  all  that, 
they  knew  nothing  about.  But  they  kept  order 
in  their  camp,  and  they  knew  the  command 
Forward,  when  it  was  given.  In  their  brief 
campaign  they  had  no  opportunity  to  learn 
any  other.  Their  soldiers'  manual  was  brief. 
It  forbade  grumbling,  and  there  was  none. 
Three  days  they  camped  out  in  the  sun  and 
rain  on  the  San  Juan  hills,  fighting  by  day 
and  digging  burrows  by  night,  with  little  to 
eat  and  only  the  ditches  to  sleep  in,  but  not  a 
complaint  was  heard.  When  the  enemy  at- 
tacked, suddenly  and  in  full  force,  at  three 

[189] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

o'clock  in  the  morning,  they  were  there  to  meet 
him,  and,  hungry  and  shivering,  drenched 
through  and  through  by  the  rains  and  by  the 
heavy  dews,  they  drove  him  back. 

"  That  is  the  test,"  said  their  commander, 
speaking  of  it  afterward:  "  to  wake  up  men  at 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  who  have  had  no- 
thing to  eat,  perhaps  for  days,  and  nothing  to 
cover  them;  to  wake  them  up  suddenly  to  a  big 
fight,  and  have  them  all  run  the  right  way ;  that 
is  the  test.  There  was  n't  a  man  who  went  to 
the  rear." 

The  Rough-Riders  were  natural  fighters, 
from  the  Colonel  down.  The  science  of  war 
as  they  took  it  from  him  and  practised  it 
summed  itself  up  in  the  simple  formula  to 
"  strike  hard,  strike  quick,  and  when  .in  doubt 
go  forward."  It  was  so  Napoleon  won  his  vic- 
tories. But  the  Spaniards  complained  bitterly. 
The  Americans  did  not  fight  according  to  the 
rules  of  war,  they  wailed.  "  They  go  forward 
when  fired  upon  instead  of  falling  back."  Ac- 
cordingly they,  the  Spaniards,  were  compelled 
to  run,  which  they  did,  denouncing  the  irregu- 
larity of  the  preceding.  It  was  irregular.  It 
was  one  of  the  several  things  in  this  extraordi- 

[190] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

nary  war  that  did  violence  to  all  the  traditions, 
and  tangled  up  military  precedent  and  red  tape 
in  the  field  in  a  hopeless  snarl.  However, 
enough  remained  over  in  camp,  after  the  fight- 
ing was  over,  to  more  than  make  up  for  it. 

The  regiment  was  before  the  people  almost 
continuously  for  three  months.  Raised,  or- 
ganized, equipped,  and  carried  to  Cuba  within 
a  month  by  the  same  splendid  energy  and  ex- 
ecutive force  that  fitted  out  the  navy  for  its 
victorious  fights  in  the  East  and  West,  it  took 
the  field  at  once  and  kept  it  till  the  army  rested 
upon  its  arms  under  the  walls  of  Santiago.  All 
the  way  up  it  had  been  the  vanguard.  The 
dispatches  from  the  front  dealt  daily  with 
the  Rough-Riders'  exploits.  When,  at  Las 
Guasimas  with  General  Young's  corps,  they 
drove  before  them  four  times  their  number 
of  Spaniards,  frightened  at  their  impetuous 
rush  in  the  face  of  a  withering  fire  from  the 
shelter  of  an  impenetrable  jungle,  the  croak- 
ers said  that  they  were  ambushed,  and,  as  in  the 
old  days  when  Roosevelt  led  the  police  phalanx, 
the  cry  was  raised  at  home  that  he  should  be 
put  on  trial,  court-martialed.  The  fact  was 
that  the  Rough-Riders  were  fighting  a  most 

[191] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

carefully  planned  battle.  It  was  the  way  they 
won  that  frightened  the  cravens  at  home,  as  it 
did  the  Spaniards.  The  victory  cost  some  pre- 
cious lives,  but  it  is  at  such  cost  that  victories 
are  won,  and  the  moral  effect  of  the  attack  was 
very  great.  Beyond  a  doubt  it  saved  worse 
bloodshed  later  on.  It  has  been  Theodore 
Roosevelt's  lot  often  to  be  charged  with  rash- 
ness, with  what  his  critics  in  the  rear  are  pleased 
to  call  his  "  lack  of  tact."  It  is  the  tribute  paid 
by  timidity  to  unquestioning  courage.  The 
campaign  having  been  carefully  planned,  and 
General  Wheeler  having  issued  his  orders  to 
attack  the  enemy,  the  thing  left  to  do  was  to 
charge.  And  they  charged.  The  number  of 
the  enemy  had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  nor  the 
fact  that  he  was  intrenched,  invisible,  whereas 
they  were  exposed,  in  full  sight.  He  was  to  be 
driven  out;  and  he  was  driven  out.  That  was 
war  on  the  American  plan,  as  understood  by  the 
Rough-Riders. 

Ten  days  of  marching  and  fighting  in  the 
bush  culminated  in  the  storming  of  the  San 
Juan  hills,  with  Colonel  Roosevelt  in  full  com- 
mand, Colonel  Wood  having  been  deservedly 
promoted  after  Las  Guasimas.  The  story  of 

[192] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

the  famous  charge  up  the  barren  slope,  of  the 
spl  ;ndid  bravery  of  the  colored  cavalry  regi- 
ment that  had  been  lying  out  with  the  Rough- 
Riders  in  the  trenches  and  now  came  to  the  sup- 
port of  their  chums  with  a  rush,  and  of  the  vic- 
tory wrested  from  the  Spaniards  when  all  de- 
pended upon  the  success  of  the  attack,  will  be 
told  in  years  to  come  at  every  American  fire- 
side. How  much  of  the  quick  success  of  the 
campaign  was  really  due  to  the  Roosevelt 
Rough-Riders,  what  fates  hung  in  the  balance 
when  their  impetuous  rush  saved  the  day,  when 
retreat  had  been  counseled  and  in  effect  de- 
cided, we  understood  better  as  we  learned  the 
real  state  of  the  invading  army  on  the  night  of 
June  30.  Let  it  be  enough  to  say  that  it  did 
save  the  day.  Others  fought  as  valiantly,  but 
the  honor  of  breaking  the  Spanish  lines  belongs 
to  the  Rough-Riders,  as  the  honor  and  credit 
of  standing  firmly  for  an  immediate  advance 
upon  the  enemy's  works  belongs  to  their  Colo- 
nel and  his  bold  comrades  in  the  council  of  the 
chiefs  in  that  fateful  night. 

It  was  one  of  the  unexpected  things  in  that 
campaign,  that  out  of  it  should  come  the  ap- 
preciation of  the  colored  soldier  as  man  and 

[193] 


THEODORE  ,ROOSEVELT 

brother  by  those  even  who  so  lately  fought  to 
keep  him  a  chattel.  It  fell  to  the  lot  of  General 
"  Joe  "  Wheeler,  the  old  Confederate  warrior, 
to  command  the  two  regiments  of  colored 
troops,  the  Ninth  and  Tenth  Cavalry,  and  no 
one  will  bear  readier  testimony  than  he  to  the 
splendid  record  they  made.  Of  their  patience 
under  the  manifold  hardships  of  roughing  it  in 
the  tropics,  their  helpfulness  in  the  camp  and 
their  prowess  in  battle,  their  uncomplaining 
suffering  when  lying  wounded  and  helpless, 
stories  enough  are  told  to  win  for  them  fairly 
the  real  brotherhood  with  their  white-skinned 
fellows  which  they  crave.  The  most  touching 
of  the  many  I  heard  was  that  of  a  negro  trooper 
who,  struck  by  a  bullet  that  had  cut  an  artery 
in  his  neck,  was  lying  helpless,  in  danger  of 
bleeding  to  death,  when  a  Rough-Rider  came 
to  his  assistance.  There  was  only  one  thing  to 
be  done:  to  stop  the  bleeding  till  a  surgeon 
came.  A  tourniquet  could  not  be  applied 
where  the  wound  was.  The  Rough-Rider  put 
his  thumb  on  the  artery  and  held  it  there  while 
he  waited.  The  fighting  drifted  away  over  the 
hill.  He  followed  his  comrades  with  longing 
eyes  till  the  last  was  lost  to  sight.  His  place 

[194] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

was  there;  but  if  he  abandoned  the  wounded 
cavalryman,  it  was  to  let  him  die.  He  dropped 
his  gun  and  stayed.  Not  until  the  battle  was 
won  did  the  surgeon  come  that  way;  but  the 
trooper's  life  was  saved.  He  told  of  it  in  the 
hospital  with  tears  in  his  voice:  "  He  done  that 
to  me,  he  did ;  stayed  by  me  an  hour  and  a  half, 
and  me  only  a  nigger!  " 

The  colored  soldier's  Had  taken  a  great  liking 
to  their  gallant  side-partners.  They  believed 
them  invincible,  and  in  the  belief  became  nearly 
so  themselves.  The  Rough-Riders  became 
their  mascot.  They  would  have  gone  through 
fire  for  them,  and  in  sober  fact  they  did.  So 
fighting  and  burrowing  together,  holding  every 
foot  they  gained  from  the  enemy,  they  came  at 
last  to  the  gates  of  the  beleaguered  city,  and 
there  were  stayed  by  the  white  flag  of  truce. 
Two  weeks  they  lay  in  the  trenches  ready  to 
attack  when  the  word  was  given,  and  then  came 
the  surrender.  Up  to  that  point  the  Rough- 
Riders  had  borne  up  splendidly.  Poor  rations 
had  no  terrors  for  them.  If  "  cold  hog  "  was 
the  sole  item  on  the  bill  of  fare,  it  went 
down  with  a  toast  to  better  days.  Starva- 
tion they  bore  without  grumbling  while  fight- 

[  195'] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ing  for  their  lives  and  their  country.  The 
sleepless  night,  the  rain-storms  in  the  trenches, 
the  creeping  things  that  disgust  Northern  men, 
the  tarantulas  and  the  horrible  crabs,  they  took 
as  they  came.  It  was  not  until  they  were  fairly 
back  home,  in  Camp  Wikoff ,  that  they  rebelled 
against  tainted  food  sent  up  from  the  ship  and 
demanded  something  decent  to  eat.  But  be- 
fore that  they  had  their  dark  day,  when  the 
fever  came  and  laid  low  those  whom  the  en- 
emy's bullets  had  spared. 

It  was  then,  when  the  fighting  was  over  but 
a  worse  enemy  threatened  than  the  one  they 
had  beaten  in  his  breastworks,— an  ally  on 
whose  aid  the  Spaniards  had  openly  counted, 
and,  but  for  the  way  in  which  they  were  rushed 
from  the  first,  would  not  have  counted  in  vain, 
—that  the  Rough-Riders  were  able  to  render 
their  greatest  service  to  their  country,  through 
their  gallant  chief.  Until  Colonel  Roosevelt's 
round-robin,  signed  by  all  the  general  officers 
of  the  army  in  Cuba,  startled  the  American 
people  and  caused  measures  of  instant  relief  to 
be  set  on  foot,  the  fearful  truth  that  the  army 
was  perishing  from  privation  and  fever  was  not 
known.  The  cry  it  sent  up  was:  "Take  us 

[196] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

home!  We  will  fight  for  the  flag  to  the  last 
man,  if  need  be.  But  now  our  fighting  is  done, 
we  will  not  be  left  here  to  die."  It  was  sig- 
nificant that  the  duty  of  making  the  unwelcome 
disclosure  fell  to  the  Colonel  of  the  Rough- 
Riders.  Of  all  the  officers  who  signed  it  he 
was  probably  the  youngest;  but  from  no  one 
could  the  warning  have  come  with  greater 
force. 

The  Colonel  of  the  Rough-Riders  at  the 
head  of  his  men  on  San  Juan  hill,  much  as  I 
like  the  picture,  is  not  half  so  heroic  a  figure 
to  me  as  Roosevelt  in  this  hour  of  danger  and 
doubt,  shouldering  the  blame  for  the  step  he 
knew  to  be  right.  Perhaps  it  is  because  I  know 
him  better  and  love  him  so.  Here  was  this  man 
who  had  left  an  office  of  dignity  and  great  im- 
portance in  the  Administration  to  go  to  the 
war  he  had  championed  as  just  and  right;  who 
had  left  a  family  of  little  children  to  expose  his 
life  daily  and  hourly  in  the  very  forefront  of 
battle;  whose  every  friend  in  political  life  had 
blamed  him  hotly,  warning  him  that  he  was 
wrecking  a  promising  career  in  a  quixotic  en- 
terprise— apparently  justifying  their  predic- 
tions at  a  critical  moment  by  deliberately  shoul- 

[197] 


THEODORE,  ROOSEVELT 

dering  the  odium  of  practically  censuring  the 
Administration  of  which  he  was  so  recently 
a  member.  For  that  was  what  his  letter 
amounted  to;  he  knew  it  and  they  knew  it. 
Verily,  it  is  not  strange  that  some  who  would 
have  shrunk  from  the  duty  should  call  him 
"  rash  "  for  doing  what  he  did.  They  did  not 
know  the  man.  It  was  enough  for  him  that  it 
was  duty,  that  it  was  right.  He  never  had  other 
standard  than  that. 

So  the  army  came  home,  his  Rough-Riders 
with  it,  ragged,  sore,  famished,  enfeebled,  with 
yawning  gaps  in  its  ranks,  but  saved;  they  to 
tell  of  his  courage  and  unwearying  patience; 
how  in  the  fight  he  was  always  where  the  bullets 
flew  thickest,  until  he  seemed  to  them  to  have 
a  charmed  life ;  how,  when  it  was  over,  as  they 
lay  out  in  the  jungle  and  in  the  trenches  at 
night,  they  found  him  always  there,  never  tir- 
ing of  looking  after  his  men,  of  seeing  that  the 
wounded  were  cared  for  and  the  well  were  fed ; 
ready  to  follow  him  through  thick  and  thin 
wherever  he  led,  but  unwilling  to  loaf  in  camp 
or  to  do  police  duty  when  the  country  was  no 
longer  in  need  of  them  to  fight ;  he  to  be  hailed 

[198] 


ROOSEVELT  AND  HIS  MEN 

by  his  grateful  fellow-citizens  with  the  call  to 
"  step  up  higher."  Once  more  the  right  had 
prevailed,  and  the  counsel  of  expediency  been 
shamed.  Roosevelt's  Rough-Riders  had  writ- 
ten their  name  in  history. 

"  They  were  the  finest  fellows,  and  they  were 
dead  game.  It  was  the  privilege  of  a  lifetime 
to  have  commanded  such  a  regiment.  It  was  a 
hard  campaign,  but  they  were  beautiful  days — 
and  we  won." 

We  were  lying  in  the  grass  at  his  tent,  under 
the  starry  August  sky.  Taps  had  been  sounded 
long  since.  The  Colonel's  eye  wandered 
thoughtfully  down  the  long  line  of  white  tents 
in  which  the  lights  were  dying  out  one  by  one. 
From  a  darker  line  in  front,  where  a  thousand 
horses  were  tethered,  quietly  munching  their 
supper,  came  an  occasional  low  whinnying. 
That  and  the  washing  of  the  surf  on  the  distant 
beach  were  the  only  sounds  that  broke  the  still- 
ness of  the  night.  A  bright  meteor  shot 
athwart  the  sky,  leaving  a  shining  trail,  and  fell 
far  out  beyond  the  lighthouse.  We  watched  it 
in  silence.  I  know  what  my  thoughts  were. 
He  knew  his  own. 

[199] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"  Oh,  well! "  he  said,  with  a  half -sigh,  and 
arose,  "  so  all  things  pass  away.  But  they  were 
beautiful  days." 

I  knocked  the  ashes  from  my  cigar,  and  we 
went  in. 


[900] 


IX 

RULING  BY 
THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 


IX 

RULING  BY  THE  TEN  COM- 
MANDMENTS 

THE  campaign  was  over  and  ended. 
The  morning  would  break  on  Election 
Day.  We  were  speeding  homeward  in 
the  midnight  hour  on  a  special  from  the  west- 
ern end  of  the  State,  where  the  day  had  been 
spent  in  speech-making,  a  hurricane  wind-up 
of  a  canvass  that  had  taken  the  breath  of 
the  old-timers  away.  Was  it  the  victory  in  the 
air,  was  it  Sherman  Bell,  the  rough-rider  de- 
puty sheriff  from  Cripple  Creek,  or  what  was 
it  that  had  turned  us  all,  young  and  old,  into  so 
many  romping  boys  as  the  day  drew  toward 
its  close  ?  I  can  still  see  the  venerable  Ex-Gov- 
ernor and  Minister  to  Spain  Stewart  L.  Wood- 
ford,  myself,  and  a  third  scapegrace,  whose 
name  I  have  forgotten,  going  through  the 

[203] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

streets  of  Dunkirk,  arm  in  arm,  breasting  the 
crowds  and  yelling,  "  Yi!  yi!  "  like  a  bunch  of 
college  boys  on  a  lark,  and  again  and  again  fall- 
ing into  the  line  that  passed  Mr.  Roosevelt  in 
the  hotel  lobby  to  shake  hands,  until  he  peered 
into  our  averted  faces  and  drove  us  out  with 
laughter.  And  I  can  see  him  holding  his  sides, 
while  the  audience  in  the  Opera  House  yelled 
its  approval  of  Sherman  Bell's  offer  to  Dick 
Croker,  who  had  called  Roosevelt  a  "  wild 
man":  "Who  is  this  Dick  Croker?  I  don't 
know  him.  He  don't  come  from  my  State. 
Let  him  take  thirty  of  his  best  men,  I  don't 
care  how  well  they  're  heeled,  and  I  will  take 
my  gang  and  we  '11  see  who  's  boss.  I  '11 
shoot  him  so  full  of  holes  he  won't  know  him- 
self from  a  honeycomb."  And  then  the  wild 
enthusiasm  in  the  square,  where  no  one  could 
hear  a  word  of  what  was  said  for  the  cheering. 
But  now  it  was  all  over,  and  we  were  on  the 
way  home  to  add  our  own  votes  to  the  majority 
that  would  carry  our  Rough-Rider  to  Albany. 
We  were  discussing  its  probable  size  over  our 
belated  supper,— each  according  to  his  expe- 
rience or  enthusiasm.  I  remember  his  friendly 
nod  and  smile  my  way  when  I  demanded  a 

[204] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

hundred  thousand  at  least.  He  inclined  to  ten 
or  fifteen  thousand,  as  indeed  proved  quite 
near  the  mark;  when  there  was  a  rap  on  the 
door,  and  in  came  the  engineer,  wiping  his  oily 
hands  in  his  blouse,  to  shake  hands  and  wish 
him  luck.  Roosevelt  got  up  from  the  table, 
and  I  saw  him  redden  with  pleasure  as  he 
shook  the  honest  hand  and  asked  his  name. 

"  Dewey,"  said  the  engineer,  and  such  a 
shout  went  up!  It  was  an  omen  of  victory, 
surely. 

"  Dewey,"  said  Roosevelt,  "  I  would  rather 
have  you  come  here  as  you  do  to  shake  hands 
than  have  ten  committees  of  distinguished  citi- 
zens bring  pledges  of  support  " ;  and  I  knew  he 
would.  It  is  no  empty  form  with  him  when 
he  shakes  hands  with  the  engineer  and  the  fire- 
man of  his  train  after  a  journey.  He  was  ever 
genuinely  fond  of  railroad  men,  of  skilled 
mechanics  of  any  kind,  but  especially  of  the 
men  who  harness  the  iron  steed  and  drive  it 
with  steady  eye  and  hand  through  the  dangers 
of  the  night.  They  have  something  in  com- 
mon with  him  that  makes  them  kin.  The 
pilot  of  the  Sylph  that  brought  us  through  the 
raging  storm  in  the  Sound  the  other  day  was 

[205] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  that  class.  They  sent  word  from  the  Navy- 
Yard  to  meet  the  President  that  on  no  account 
must  he  proceed  down  the  Bay  to  Ellis  Island. 
No  boat  could  live  there,  ran  the  message.  The 
President  had  the  pilot  come  down  and  looked 
him  over.  He  was  a  bronzed  sea-dog,  a  man 
every  inch  of  him. 

"I  have  promised  to  go  to  Ellis  Island; 
they  are  waiting  for  me.  Can  you  get  us 
there? " 

The  pilot  wiped  the  salt  spray  from  his  face. 
"  It  can't  be  worse  than  we  Ve  had,"  he  said. 
"  I  '11  get  you  there." 

"  Then  go  ahead,"  said  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and 
to  me,  "  What  do  you  think  of  him?  " 

"  I  would  go  with  him  anywhere,"  said  I. 
"  To  look  at  him  is  to  trust  him." 

The  President  followed  his  retreating  form 
up  the  ladder  with  a  look  that,  had  he  seen  it, 
must  have  made  him  take  his  ship  through 
Hades  itself  had  it  been  between  us  and  Ellis 
Island.  "  So  do  I  think,"  he  said.  "  They  are 
a  splendid  lot  of  fellows." 

But  I  am  sailing  ahead  of  my  time.  We 
were  on  our  train  just  now.  We  did  n't  wake 
up,  any  of  us,  the  next  morning,  till  it  rolled 

[206] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

over  the  Hudson  at  Albany,  and  there  lay  the 
Capitol,  with  flags  flying,  in  full  sight.  Just 
as  I  put  up  my  curtain  and  saw  it,  Roosevelt 
opened  the  door  of  his  room  and  bade  us  good- 
morning,  and  eleven  throats  sent  up  three 
rousing  cheers  for  "  the  Governor." 

At  night  we  shouted  again  by  torch-light, 
and  the  whole  big  State  shouted  with  us. 
Theodore  Roosevelt  was  Governor,  elected 
upon  the  pledge  that  he  would  rule  by  the  Ten 
Commandments,  in  the  city  where,  fifteen  years 
before,  the  spoils  politicians  had  spurned  him 
for  insisting  upon  doing  the  thing  that  was 
right  rather  than  the  thing  that  was  expedient. 
Say  now  the  world  does  not  move!  It  strides 
with  seven-league  boots  where  only  it  has  a  man 
who  dares  to  lead  the  way. 

Not  necessarily  at  a  smooth  or  even  gait. 
He  knew  what  was  before  him,  and  as  for  the 
politicians,  they  were  not  appreciably  nearer  to 
the  Ten  Commandments  than  in  the  old  days. 
They  had  not  changed.  They  had  fallen  in 
behind  Roosevelt  because  it  was  expedient,  not 
because  it  was  right.  They  had  to  win,  and  they 
could  win  only  with  him.  And  yet,  when 
"  Buck  "  Taylor  in  a  burst  of  fervid  frontier 

[207] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

eloquence  exhorted  his  audience  to  "  Follow  ma 
colonel!  follow  ma  colonel!  and  he  will  lead 
you,  as  he  led  us,  like  lambs  to  the  slaughter!  " 
I  think  not  unlikely  there  mingled  with  the 
cheers  and  the  laughter  the  secret  hope  in  the 
breasts  of  some  that  it  might  be  so.  It  was 
but  natural.  They  knew  right  well,  the  poli- 
ticians did,  how  much  they  had  to  expect  from 
him ;  it  was  but  a  lean  two  years  they  were  look- 
ing forward  to  with  Roosevelt  as  Governor. 
They  might  have  comforted  themselves  in  de- 
feat by  the  thought  that  he  was  killed  and  out 
of  the  way  at  last.  Who  knows? 

When  I  speak  of  politicians  here,  I  am 
thinking  of  the  spoilsmen  who  played  the  game 
for  keeps.  They  ran  the  machine,  and  they 
took  him,  with  their  eyes  open,  to  save  it.  And 
then  we  saw  the  curious  sight  of  the  good-gov- 
ernment forces,  his  natural  allies,  who  were 
largely  what  they  were  because  of  the  exam- 
ple he  had  all  along  consistently  set,  sulking 
disconsolate  because  he,  who  had  always  been 
a  loyal  party  man  without  ever  surrendering 
his  conscience  to  his  partisanship,  went  with 
his  party;  instead  of  rejoicing,  as  they  might 
well  have  done,  that  the  party  had  been  forced 

[208] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

into  making  such  a  choice,  that  being  the  very 
end  and  aim  and  meaning  of  their  political  ex- 
istence. They  grumbled  because  he  would 
"  see  the  party  bosses."  Of  course  he  would — 
see  anybody  that  could  help  him  get  things 
done ;  for  he  had  certain  definite  ends  of  good 
government  in  view,  and  it  was  no  more  to 
his  taste  to  pose  on  the  solitary  peak  of  abor- 
tive righteousness  as  Governor,  than  it  had 
been  as  a  legislator.  Yes,  he  would  see  the 
bosses,  and  he  went  right  up  to  the  front  door 
and  told  the  newspaper  men  his  business, 
though  they  tried  to  smuggle  him  in  secretly  by 
the  back  way,  to  save  his  feelings.  His  feel- 
ings were  n't  hurt  a  bit.  If  he  could  make  the 
machine  work  with  him  for  good,  he  had  killed 
two  birds  with  one  stone,  for  so  it  would  be 
a  more  effective  machine  for  party  purposes  as 
he  saw  them.  As  for  its  working  him  to  its 
uses— the  bosses  knew  better.  The  reformers 
did  not.  They  sat  and  mourned,  needlessly. 

For  him— I  thought  more  than  once  in  those 
days  of  a  paragraph  he  had  written  about 
practical  politics  while  he  was  yet  a  Civil  Ser- 
vice Commissioner  practising  them  with  might 
and  main.  How  much  of  prophecy  there  is  in 

[209] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

his  writings,  when  you  look  back  now!  There 
would  be  obstacles,  he  wrote.  "  Let  him  make 
up  his  mind  that  he  will  have  to  face  the  violent 
opposition  of  the  spoils  politician,  and  also,  too 
often,  the  unfair  and  ungenerous  criticism  of 
those  who  ought  to  know  better.  .  .  .  Let  him 
fight  his  way  forward,  paying  only  so  much  re- 
gard to  both  as  is  necessary  to  help  him  to  win 
in  spite  of  them.  He  may  not,  and  indeed 
probably  will  not,  accomplish  nearly  as  much 
as  he  would  like  to,  or  as  he  thinks  he  ought 
to ;  but  he  will  certainly  accomplish  something." 
He  settled  down  courageously  to  the  fight  that 
was  his  own  prescription.  And  when  it  was 
over,  this  was  the  judgment  passed  upon  his 
administration  in  the  "  Review  of  Reviews  "  by 
Dr.  Albert  Shaw,  than  whom  there  is  no  fairer, 
more  clear-headed  critic  of  public  events  in  the 
country:  "  He  found  the  State  administra- 
tion thoroughly  political;  he  left  it  business- 
like and  efficient.  He  kept  thrice  over  every 
promise  that  he  made  to  the  people  in  his  can- 
vass. Mr.  Roosevelt  so  elevated  and  improved 
the  whole  tone  of  the  State  administration 
and  so  effectually  educated  his  party  and 
public  opinion  generally,  that  future  govern- 

[210] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

ors  will  find  easy  what  was  before  almost  im- 
possible." 

That  was  accomplishing  something,  surely. 
It  worked  all  right,  then.  Had  some  of  the 
solemn  head-shakers  known  how  he  enjoyed 
it  all,  I  fear  that  to  the  inconsistent  charges  of 
bowing  down  to  the  idol  of  party  and  of  wreck- 
ing his  party,  that  were  flung  at  him  in  the 
same  breath,  there  would  have  been  added 
the  killing  one  of  levity,  that  was  not  used 
up  against  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  an 
amused  recollection  of  one  band  of  visiting 
statesmen  that  filed  into  the  Executive  Man- 
sion with  grave,  portentous  mien,  just  as  the 
Governor  and  I  stole  down  the  kitchen  stairs 
to  the  sub-cellar  to  visit  with  Kermit's  white 
rats,  that  were  much  better  company.  The 
Governor  knew  their  names,  their  lineage,  and 
all  their  "  points,"  which  were  many,  according 
to  Kermit.  They  were  fully  discussed  before 
we  returned  to  the  upper  world  of  stupid  poli- 
tics. 

That  is  my  opinion,  anyway.  I  hate  politics 
— I  am  thinking  of  the  game  again — and  I 
am  not  going  to  bother  with  them  here,  if  I  can 
help  it,  which  I  suppose  I  can't  since  the 

[211] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Governor  of  the  Empire  State  must  needs  be 
in  politics  up  to  his  neck  if  he  would  do  his 
duty;  that  is,  he  must  be  concerned  about  the 
welfare  of  his  people  rather  than  about  putting 
his  backers  into  fat  jobs  and  seeing  that  the 
"  party  is  made  solid  "  in  every  county.  But 
then,  they  are  different  brands.  Roosevelt  had 
his  own  brand  from  the  start.  Long  before, 
he  had  identified  and  carefully  charted  it,  lest 
the  party  managers  make  a  mistake.  "  Prac- 
tical politics,"  he  wrote,"  must  not  be  construed 
to  mean  dirty  politics.  On  the  contrary,  in  the 
long  run,  the  politics  of  fraud  and  treachery 
and  foulness  is  unpractical  politics,  and  the 
most  practical  of  all  politicians  is  the  one  who 
is  clean  and  decent  and  upright.  (  The  party 
man  who  offers  his  allegiance  to  party  as  an 
excuse  for  blindly  following  his  party,  right  or 
wrong,  and  who  fails  to  try  to  make  that  party 
in  any  way  better,  commits  a  crime  against 
the  country." 

To  this  place  had  I  come  when  I  was  asked 
to  go  over  and  tell  the  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  on  the  West  Side  what  the  "  bat- 
tle with  the  slum  "  meant  to  my  city.  And 
I  did,  and  when  I  had  told  them  the  story  I 

[219] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

showed  them  a  picture  of  Theodore  Roosevelt 
ajs-the  man  who  had  done  more  hard  and  honest 
righting  for  those  who  cannot  fight  for  them- 
selves, or  do  not  know  how,  than  any  other  man 
anywhere.  And  a  man  in  the  audience— there 
is  always  one  of  that  kind  in  every  audience — 
who  could  see  in  the  President  of  the  United 
States  only  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  the 
next  term,  wrote  to  me  of  partisanship  and  of 
bad  taste,  and  of  how  he  could  not  stand  Roose- 
velt because  as  Governor  he  would  "  see  Platt," 
and  did.  I  have  his  letter  here  before  me,  and 
my  blood  boils  up  in  me  whenever  I  look  at  it. 
Not  because  of  the  particular  man  and  his  let- 
ter. I  have  come  across  their  like  before.  The 
thing  that  angers  me  is  the  travesty  they  make 
of  the  real  non-partisanship  with  which  we 
must  win  our  fight  for  decency  in  the  cities, 
because  national  politics  in  municipal  elec- 
tions are  a  mere  cloak  for  corruption.  How  in 
the  world  am  I  to  persuade  my  healthy-minded 
Democratic  neighbor  not  to  listen  to  Tam- 
many's blandishments  when  he  has  this  wizened 
spectacle  before  him?  He  is  a  man  with  con- 
victions, who  understands  men  and  the  play  of 
human  forces  in  the  world,  and  can  appreciate 

[213] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  for  what  he  is  and  does,  even  if  he 
disagrees  with  him;  whereas  the  other  never 
can.  He  can  only  "  see  Platt."  Verily,  be- 
tween the  two,  give  me  Platt.  If  he  had 
horns  and  a  spike-tail  painted  blue,  and  all 
the  other  parlor  furnishings  of  the  evil  place, 
I  think  I  should  take  my  chances  with  him 
and  a  jolly  old  fight  rather  than  with  the  shiv- 
ering visions  of  my  correspondent  who  is  so 
mortally  afraid  of  the  appearance  of  evil  that 
by  no  chance  can  he  ever  get  time  to  do  good. 

See  Platt!  Governor  Roosevelt  saw  no  end 
of  people  during  his  two  years'  term,  and  from 
some  of  them  he  learned  something,  and  others 
learned  something  from  him.  The  very  first 
thing  he  did  when  he  was  in  the  Capitol  at  Al- 
bany was  to  ask  the  labor  leaders  to  come  up 
and  see  him.  There  were  a  lot  of  labor  laws, 
so  called,  on  the  statute-books,  designed  to  bet- 
ter the  lot  of  the  workingman  in  one  way  or 
another,  and  half  of  them  were  dead  letters. 
Some  of  them  had  been  passed  in  good  faith, 
and  had  somehow  stuck  in  the  enforcement; 
and  then  there  were  others  that  were  just 
fakes. 

"  These  laws,"  said  the  Governor  to  the  la- 

[214] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

bor  leaders,  "  are  your  special  concern.  I  want 
you  to  look  them  over  with  me  and  see  if  they 
are  fair,  and,  if  they  are,  that  they  be  fairly 
enforced.  We  will  have  no  dead-letter  laws. 
If  there  is  anything  wrong  that  you  know  of, 
I  want  you  to  tell  me  of  it.  If  we  need  more 
legislation,  we  will  go  to  the  legislature  and 
ask  for  it.  If  we  have  enough,  we  will  see  to 
it  that  the  laws  we  have  are  carried  out,  and  the 
most  made  of  them." 

And  during  two  years  there  was  no  disagree- 
ment in  that  quarter  that  was  not  gotten  over 
fairly.  Sometimes  the  facts  were  in  dispute. 
Then  he  went  to  those  who  were  in  position 
to  make  them  plain  and  asked  them  to  do  it. 
On  two  or  three  occasions  he  made  me  the 
umpire  between  disputing  organizations  and 
the  Factory  Department,  and  I  had  again 
a  near  view  of  the  extraordinary  faculty  of 
judging  quickly  and  correctly  which  habit  and 
severe  training  have  developed  in  this  man. 
Cases  to  which  I  gave  weeks  of  steady  en- 
deavor to  get  at  the  truth,  and  then  had  to  bring 
to  him,  still  in  doubt,  he  decided  almost  at  a 
glance,  piercing  the  husks  with  unerring  thrust 
and  dragging  out  the  kernel  that  had  eluded 

[215] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

me.  I  remember  particularly  one  such  occa- 
sion when  I  sat  on  the  edge  of  the  bed  in  his 
room  at  the  hotel — he  had  come  down  to  New 
York  to  review  a  militia  regiment — while  he 
was  shaving  himself  at  the  window.  I  had 
gone  all  over  the  case  and  told  him  of  my  per- 
plexity, when  he  took  it  up,  and  between  bub- 
bles of  soap  he  blew  at  me  he  made  clear  what 
had  been  dim  before,  until  I  marveled  that  I 
had  not  seen  it. 

There  came  at  last  an  occasion  when  nobody 
could  decide.  It  was  the  factory  law  again 
that  was  in  question— the  enforcement  of  it, 
that  is  to  say.  The  claim  was  made  that  it  was 
not  enforced  as  it  should  be.  The  factory  in- 
spectors said  they  did  their  best.  The  register- 
ing alone  of  all  the  tenement-house  workers, 
as  the  new  law  demanded,  in  a  population  of 
over  two  millions  of  souls  with  few  enough 
of  their  tenements  free  from  the  stamp  of  the 
sweat-shop,  was  a  big  enough  task  to  leave 
a  margin  for  honest  intentions  even  with  poor 
results.  But  the  Governor  was  not  content 
to  give  his  inspectors  the  benefit  of  the  doubt. 
He  wrote  to  me  to  get  together  two  or  three  of 
the  dissatisfied,  a  list  of  disputed  houses,  and 

[216] 


THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

the  factory  inspector  of  the  district,  and  he 
would  come  down  and  see  for  himself. 

"  I  think,"  he  wrote,  "  that  perhaps,  if  I 
looked  through  the  sweat-shops  myself  with  the 
inspectors,  as  well  as  looked  over  their  work, 
we  might  be  in  a  condition  to  put  things  on 
a  new  basis,  just  as  they  were  put  on  a  new 
basis  in  the  police  department  after  you  and 
I  began  our  midnight  tours." 

I  shall  not  soon  forget  that  trip  we  took 
together.  It  was  on  one  of  the  hottest  days  of 
early  summer,  and  it  wore  me  completely  out, 
though  I  was  used  to  it.  Him  it  only  gave 
a  better  appetite  for  dinner.  I  had  picked 
twenty  five-story  tenements,  and  we  went 
through  them  from  cellar  to  roof,  examining 
every  room  and  the  people  we  found  there. 
They  were  on  purpose  the  worst  tenements  of 
the  East  Side,  and  they  showed  us  the  hardest 
phases  of  the  factory  inspector's  work,  and 
where  he  fell  short.  The  rules  under  which 
a  tenement  could  be  licensed  for  home  work 
required :  absolute  cleanliness,  that  there  should 
be  no  bed  in  the  room  where  the  work  was 
done,  no  outsider  employed,  no  contagious  dis- 
ease, and  only  one  family  living  in  the  rooms. 

[217] 


THEODORE,  ROOSEVELT 

In  one  Italian  tenement  that  had  room  for 
seventeen  families  I  had  found  forty-three  the 
winter  before  on  midnight  inspection;  that  is 
to  say,  three  families  in  every  three-room  flat, 
instead  of  one,  all  cooking  at  the  same  stove. 
No  doubt  they  were  still  there,  but  the  day- 
light showed  us  only  a  few  women  and  a  lot  of 
babies  whom  they  claimed  as  theirs.  The  men 
were  out,  the  larger  children  in  the  street. 

The  Governor  went  carefully  through  every 
room,  observing  its  condition  and  noting  the 
number  of  the  license  on  the  wall,  if  anything 
was  wrong.  Sometimes  there  was  no  license. 
Sometimes  one  had  been  issued  and  revoked, 
but  the  women  were  still  at  work.  They  lis- 
tened to  remonstrances  unmoved. 

"  Vat  for  I  go  avay  ?  "  said  one.  "  Vere  I  go 
den? " 

It  was  an  intensely  practical  question  with 
them,  but  so  it  was  and  is  with  us  all;  for 
from  those  forsaken  tenements,  where  the  home 
is  wrecked  hopelessly  by  ill-paid  work  that 
barely  puts  a  dry  crust  into  the  mouths  of  the 
children,  stalks  the  specter  of  diphtheria,  of 
scarlet  fever,  and  of  consumption  forth  over 
the  eity  and  the  land,  sometimes  basted  in  the 

[218] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

lining  of  the  coat  or  the  dress  that  was  bought 
at  the  fashionable  Broadway  counter,  proving 
us  neighbors  in  very  truth,  though  we  deny 
the  kinship.  Roosevelt  understood.  His  in- 
vestigations as  an  assemblyman  into  the  cigar- 
makers'  tenement-house  conditions,  and,  later, 
as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Health,  had  put 
him  in  possession  of  the  facts.  He  did  not 
mince  matters  with  the  factory  inspector  when, 
after  our  completed  tour,  we  went  to  his  office 
late  in  the  afternoon.  There  was  improvement, 
he  said,  but  not  enough. 

"  I  do  not  think  you  quite  understand,"  he 
said,  "  what  I  mean  by  enforcing  a  law.  I 
don't  want  it  made  as  easy  as  possible  for  the 
manufacturer.  I  want  you  to  refuse  to  license 
anybody  in  a  tenement  that  does  not  come  up  to 
the  top  notch  of  your  own  requirements.  Make 
the  owners  of  tenements  understand  that  old, 
badly  built,  uncleanly  houses  shall  not  be  used 
for  manufacturing  in  any  shape,  and  that  li- 
censes will  be  granted  only  in  houses  fulfilling 
rigidly  the  requirements  of  cleanliness  and 
proper  construction.  Put  the  bad  tenement 
at  a  disadvantage  as  against  the  well-con- 
structed and  well-kept  house,  and  make  the 

[219] 


THEODORE-  ROOSEVELT 

house-owner  as  well  as  the  manufacturer  un- 
derstand it." 

We  heard  the  echoes  of  that  day's  work  in 
the  Governor's  emergency  message  to  the  legis- 
lature the  following  winter,  calling  upon  it 
to  pass  the  Tenement  House  Commission  Bill. 
He  summoned  "  the  general  sentiment  for  de- 
cent and  cleanly  living  and  for  fair  play  to  all 
our  citizens  "  to  oppose  the  mercenary  hostil- 
ity of  the  slum  landlord.  And  the  legislature 
heard,  and  the  bill  became  law,  to  the  untold 
relief  of  the  people.  That  was  a  sample  of  the 
practical  politics  in  the  interest  of  which  he  was 
willing  to  "  see  "  the  party  managers,  if  it  was 
needed.  And  it  usually  ended  with  their  see- 
ing things  as  he  did. 

It  seemed  fair  and  just  to  the  Governor  that 
corporations  with  valuable  franchises  should  be 
taxed  on  these,  since  they  were  much  more 
valuable  property  than  their  real  estate.  It 
was  one  way,  to  his  mind,  of  avoiding  crank 
legislation  designed  merely  to  "  hit  money." 
The  party  managers  disagreed.  The  Gov- 
ernor had  thought  it  all  out;  to  him  it  was 
just,  even  expedient  as  a  party  measure.  He 
invited  the  corporation  people  to  come  and  see 

[220] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

him  about  it,  that  they  might  talk  it  over.  They 
did  n't;  they  conspired  with  the  party  mana- 
gers to  bury  the  bill  in  committee  in  the  legis- 
lature. When  the  Governor  sent  an  emer- 
gency message  to  wake  it,  they  tore  it  up.  The 
next  morning  another  message  was  laid  upon 
the  Speaker's  desk. 

"  I  learn,"  it  read,  "  that  the  emergency  mes- 
sage which  I  sent  last  evening  to  the  Assembly 
on  behalf  of  the  Franchise  Tax  Bill  has  not 
been  read.  I  therefore  send  hereby  another. 
I  need  not  impress  upon  the  Assembly  the 
need  of  passing  this  bill  at  once.  ...  It  estab- 
lishes the  principle  that  hereafter  corporations 
holding  franchises  from  the  public  shall  pay 
their  just  share  of  the  public  burden." 

The  bill  was  passed.  The  party  managers 
"  saw."  The  corporations  did,  too,  and  asked 
to  be  heard.  They  were  heard.  The  law  was 
amended  at  an  extra  session,  but  the  principle 
stood  unaltered.  Since  then  the  Court  of  Ap- 
peals has  declared  it  constitutional  and  good, 
and  not  only  the  State  of  New  York,  but  the 
whole  country  thanks  Governor  Roosevelt  for 
a  piece  of  legislation  that  makes  for  the  per- 
manent peace  of  our  land.  There  can  never 

[221] 


THEODORE,  ROOSEVELT 

be  other  basis  for  that  than  the  absolute  as- 
surance that  all  men,  rich  _a_rid  .poor,  are  equal 
before  the  law.  Trouble  is  sure  to  come, 
sooner  or  later,  where  money  can  buy  special 
privilege.  )The  marvel  is  that  those  who  have 
the  money  to  buy,  cannot  half  the  time  see  it.  I 

I  am  tempted  to  tell  the  story  of  how  Roose- 
velt appointed  the  successor  of  Louis  F.  Payn, 
Superintendent  of  Insurance,  and  made  one 
more  mortal  enemy.  That  was  one  of  the  times 
he  "  saw  "  Senator  Platt,  whose  lifelong  po- 
litical friend  Payn  was.  But  what  would  be 
the  use?  Xone  to  my  correspondent  who 
knows  it  all,  yet  does  not  understand.  All  the 
rest  of  us  have  it  by  heart.  And  it  would  be 
politics,  which  I  said  I  would  eschew.  It  was 
politics  for  fair,  for  all  the  power  of  the  ma- 
chine, all  of  it  and  more,  was  opposed  to  the 
Governor  in  his  determination  to  displace  this 
man.  But  Roosevelt  was  right,  and  he  won. 
Let  that  be  the  record.  When  he  was 
gone  from  Albany  the  oldest  lobbyist,  starved 
though  he  was,  had  to  own  that  Roosevelt 
fought  fair,  always  in  the  open.  His  recourse 
was  to  the  people,  and  that  was  how  he 
won, — even  in  the  matter  of  the  civil  service 

[222] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

bill,  in  which  he  trod  hard  on  the  toes  of 
the  politicians.  We  had  a  law,  but  they  had 
succeeded  in  "  taking  the  starch  out  of  it." 
Roosevelt  put  it  back.  I  think  no  man  living 
but  he  could  have  done  it.  But  they  realized 
that  they  could  not  face  him  before  the  peo- 
ple on  that,  of  all  issues.  And  to-day  my 
State  has  a  civil  service  law  that  is  as  good 
as  it  can  well  be  made,  and  we  are  so  much 
better  off. 

I  never  liked  Albany  before,  but  I  grew  to 
be  quite  fond  of  the  queer  old  Dutch  city  on  the 
Hudson  in  those  two  years.  It  is  not  so  far 
away  but  that  I  could  run  up  after  office  hours 
and  have  a  good  long  talk  with  the  Governor 
before  the  midnight  train  carried  me  back 
home.  Sometimes  it  was  serious  business  only 
that  carried  me  up  there.  I  am  thinking  just 
now  of  the  execution  of  Mrs.  Place,  who  had 
murdered  her  stepdaughter  and  tried  to  brain 
her  husband.  It  was  a  very  wicked  murder, 
but  there  was  something  about  the  execution 
of  a  woman  that  stirred  the  feelings  of  a  lot 
of  people,  myself  included.  Perhaps  it  was 
largely  a  survival  of  the  day  of  public  hang- 
ings, which  is  happily  past.  But,  more  than 

[223] 


THEODORE,  ROOSEVELT 

that,  I  had  a  notion  that  it  would  hurt  his  ca- 
reer. I  think  I  told  of  it  in  "  The  Making  of 
an  American  "  when  it  was  all  long  over.  I 
certainly  did  not  tell  him.  I  knew  better.  But 
I  argued  all  through  a  long  evening  into  the 
midnight  hour,  until  I  had  to  grab  my  hat  and 
run  for  the  train,  that  he  should  not  permit  it. 
I  argued  myself  to  an  absolute  stand-still,  for 
I  remember  his  saying  at  last  impatiently : 

"  If  it  had  only  been  a  man  she  killed — but 
another  woman!"  and  I,  exasperated  and  il- 
logical: "Anyway,  you  are  obliged  to  admit 
that  she  tried  hard  enough  to  kill  a  man." 

After  I  got  back  home  he  sent  me  a  letter 
which  I  may  not  print  here.  But  I  shall  hand 
it  down  to  my  children,  and  they  will  keep  it  as 
one  of  the  precious  possessions  of  their  father, 
long  after  I  have  ceased  to  live  and  write. 
One  sentence  in  it  I  have  no  right  to  withhold, 
for  it  turns  the  light  on  his  character  and  way 
of  thinking  as  few  things  do : 

v"  Whatever  I  do,  old  friend,  believe  it  will  be 
because  after  painful  groping  I  see  my  duty 
in  some  given  path.*'? 

So  it  was  always  with  him.  His  duty  was 
made  clear  when  the  commission  of  experts  he 

[224] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

had  appointed  reported  that  Mrs.  Place  was  as 
sane  and  responsible  as  any  of  them,  and  pub- 
lic clamor  had  no  power  to  move  him  from  it. 
I  like  to  set  over  against  her  case  another 
in  which  my  argument  prevailed,  for  it  shows 
the  man's  heart,  which  he  had  often  no  little 
trouble  to  hide  under  the  sternness  imposed  by 
duty.  I  knew  the  soreness  of  it  then  by  the 
joy  I  saw  it  gave  him  to  make  people  happy. 
Policeman  Hannigan  had  been  sent  to  Sing 
Sing  for  shooting  a  boy  who  was  playing  foot- 
ball in  the  street  on  Thanksgiving  Day.  He 
ran,  and  the  policeman,  who  had  been  sent  with 
special  orders  to  clear  the  ball-players  out  of 
the  block,  where  they  had  been  breaking  win- 
dows, ran  after  him.  In  the  excitement  of  the 
chase  he  fired  his  pistol,  and  the  bullet  struck 
and  slightly  wounded  the  boy  in  the  leg.  The 
policeman  was  "  broken  "  and  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary, and  of  the  incident  we  made  a  mighty 
lever  in  the  fight  for  playgrounds  where  the 
boys  might  play  without  breaking  either  win- 
dows or  laws.  And  then  I  thought  of  the  po- 
liceman in  the  prison,  a  young  man  with  a  wife 
and  children  and  a  clean  record  till  then,  and 
I  asked  the  Governor  to  pardon  him.  Of 

[225] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

course  he  had  not  meant  to  shoot;  he  was  car- 
ried away,  and  now  he  had  been  punished 
enough.  I  have  preserved  the  Governor's  an- 
swer that  came  by  next  day's  mail.  It  was 
written  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  1899: 

"DEAR  JAKE: 

"  Happy  New  Year  to  you  and  yours,  and 
as  a  New  Year's  gift  take  the  pardon  of  the 
policeman  Hannigan.  The  papers  were  for- 
warded to  the  prison  this  morning. 

"  Ever  yours, 

"  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT." 

1 

And  so  one  man  who  that  day  was  without 
hope  started  fair  with  the  new  year. 

I  wish  I  might  go  on  and  write  indefinitely 
of  those  days  and  what  they  were  to  me:  Of 
that  dinner-party  to  some  foreign  visitors  into 
which  I,  taking  tea  peacefully  with  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  and  the  children,  was  suddenly  cata- 
pulted by  the  announcement  that  through  an 
unexpected  arrival  there  would  be  thirteen  at 
the  table,  a  fact  which  would  be  sure  to  make 
some  one  of  the  guests  uncomfortable,  and  at 
which  the  Governor  kept  poking  quiet  fun  at 

[226] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

me  across  the  table,  until  I  warned  him  with  a 
look  that  I  might  even  betray  his  perfidy,  if 
he  kept  it  up.  Of  how  I  kept  admiring  the 
Executive  Mansion  because  Cleveland  had 
lived  in  it,  till  he  took  me  to  the  Capitol  and 
showed  me  there  the  pictures  of  all  his  prede- 
cessors except  Cleveland,  who  was  stingy,  he 
said,  and  wouldn't  give  the  State  his.  Whereat 
I  rebelled  loudly,  maintaining  that  it  was  mod- 
esty. Of  the  mighty  argument  that  ensued, — 
a  mock  argument,  for  in  my  soul  I  knew  that 
he  thought  as  much  of  Cleveland  as  did  I.  Of 
these  things  I  would  like  to  tell,  for  they  make 
the  picture  of  the  man  to  me,  and  perhaps  I  can 
smuggle  it  in  later.  But  here,  I  suppose,  I 
ought  to  remember  the  Governor,  and  there- 
fore I  shall  not  do  as  I  would  otherwise. 

When  I  look  back  now  to  the  day  when  he 
stood  in  the  Assembly  Chamber,  with  the  oath 
of  office  fresh  upon  his  lips,  and  spoke  to  his 
people,  there  comes  to  me  this  sentence  from 
his  speech:  "  It  is  not  given  to  any  man,  nor 
to  any  set  of  men,  to  see  with  absolutely  clear 
vision  into  the  future.  All  that  can  be  done 
is  to  face  the  facts  as  we  find  them,  to  meet 
each  difficulty  in  practical  fashion,  and  to  strive 

[227] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

steadily  for  the  betterment  both  of  our  civil  and 
social  conditions." 

Truly,  if  ever  man  kept  a  pledge,  he  kept 
that.  He  nursed  no  ambitions ;  he  built  up  no 
machine  of  his  own.  He  was  there  to  do  his 
duty  as  it  was  given  to  him  to  see  it,  and  he 
strove  steadily  for  the  betterment  of  all  he 
touched  as  Governor  of  the  State  that  was 
his  by  birth  and  long  ancestry,  even  as  his 
father  had  striven  in  his  day  and  in  his  sphere. 
He  made  enemies — God  help  the  poor  man 
who  has  none ;  but  he  kept  his  friends.  When 
he  was  gone,  a  long  while  after,  my  way  led 
me  to  Albany  again.  I  had  not  cared  much  for 
it  since  he  went.  And  I  said  so  to  a  friend, 
an  old  State  official  who  had  seen  many  gov- 
ernors come  and  go.  He  laid  his  hand  upon 
my  arm. 

"  Yes,"  said  he,  "  we  think  so,  many  of  us. 
The  place  seemed  dreary  when  he  was  gone. 
But  I  know  now  that  he  left  something  behind 
that  was  worth  our  losing  him  to  get.  This 
past  winter,  for  the  first  time,  I  heard  the  ques- 
tion spring  up  spontaneously,  as  it  seemed, 
when  a  measure  was  up  in  the  legislature: 
'Is  it  right?'  Not  'Is  it  expedient?'  not 

[228] 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

4  How  is  it  going  to  help  me? '  not  '  What  is  it 
worth  to  the  party? '  Not  any  of  these,  but 
'  Is  it  right? '  That  is  Roosevelt's  legacy  to 
Albany.  And  it  was  worth  his  coming  and  his 
going  to  have  that." 

So  that  was  what  we  got  out  of  his  term  as 
Governor— all  of  us,  for  the  legacy  is  to  the 
whole  land,  not  only  to  my  own  State.  As  for 
him,  all  unconscious  of  it,  he  had  been  learning 
to  be  President,  the  while  he  taught  us  Henry 
Clay's  lesson  that  there  is  one  thing  that  is 
even  better  than  to  be  President, — namely,  to 
be  right. 


[299] 


X 

THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

ON  that  summer  day,  three  years  ago, 
when  the  Republican  party  nomi- 
nated Theodore  Roosevelt  for  Vice- 
President,  I  was  lying  on  my  back,  stricken 
down  by  sudden  severe  illness.  My  wife  had 
telegraphed  to  him  that  I  longed  to  see  him; 
but  in  the  turmoil  of  the  convention  the  mes- 
sage did  not  get  to  him  till  the  morning  after 
the  nominations  were  made.  He  came  at  once 
from  Philadelphia,  and  it  was  then  that  I, 
out  of  pain  and  peril,  heard  from  his  own  lips 
the  story  of  his  acceptance  of  the  new  dignity 
his  countrymen  had  thrust  upon  him.  "Thrust 
upon  "  is  right.  I  knew  how  stoutly  he  had 
opposed  the  offer,  how  he  had  met  delega- 
tion after  delegation  with  the  frank  avowal 
that  he  could  serve  the  party  and  the  country 

[233] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

better  as  Governor  of  New  York,  and  I  knew 
that  that  was  his  ambition;  for  his  work  at 
Albany  was  but  half  finished.  It  was  his  desire 
that  the  people  should  give  him  another  term 
in  his  great  office,  unasked,  upon  the  record  of 
the  two  years  that  were  drawing  to  a  close.  He 
had  built  up  no  machine  of  his  own.  He  had 
used  that  which  he  found  to  the  uttermost  of  its 
bent,  and  of  his  ability,— not  always  with  the 
good  will  of  the  managers ;  but  he  had  used  it 
for  the  things  he  had  in  mind,  telling  the  bosses 
that  for  all  other  legitimate  purposes,  for  or- 
ganization, for  power,  they  might  have  it:  he 
should  not  hinder  them.  Now,  upon  this  rec- 
ord, with  nothing  to  back  him  but  that,  he 
wished  the  people  to  commission  him  and  his 
party  to  finish  their  work.  It  was  thoroughly 
characteristic  of  Roosevelt  and  of  his  trust  in 
the  people  as  both  able  and  willing  to  do  the 
right,  once  it  was  clearly  before  them. 

He  knew  well  enough  what  was  on  foot  con- 
cerning him.  He  was  fully  advised  of  the 
plans  of  his  enemies  to  shelve  him  in  the 
"  harmless  office  "  of  Vice-President,  and  how 
they  were  taking  advantage  of  his  popu- 
larity in  the  West  and  with  the  young  men 

[284] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

throughout  the  land  to  "  work  up  "  a  strenuous 
demand  for  him  to  fill  the  second  place  on  the 
ticket.  So,  they  reasoned,  he  would  be  out  of 
the  way  for  four  years,  and  four  years  might 
bring  many  things.  As  Vice-President  he 
would  not  be  in  1904  anything  like  the  candi- 
date before  the  people  which  two  years  more  as 
Governor  of  the  Empire  State  would  make 
him.  Back  of  the  spoils  politicians  were  the 
big  corporations  that  had  neither  forgotten  nor 
forgiven  the  franchise-tax  law  that  made  them 
pay  on  their  big  dividend-earning  properties, 
as  any  poor  man  was  taxed  on  his  home.  Any- 
thing to  beat  him  for  Governor  and  for  the 
Presidency  four  years  hence !  The  big  traction 
syndicates  in  the  East  made  the  pace:  Roosevelt 
for  Vice-President !  He  was  not  deceived ;  but 
the  plotters  were.  Their  team  ran  away  with 
them.  The  demand  they  desired  came  from 
the  West  and  swept  him  into  the  office.  From 
perhaps  one  State  in  the  East  and  one  in  the 
West  it  was  a  forced  call.  From  the  great 
and  bounding  prairies,  from  the  rugged  moun- 
tain sides,  and  from  the  sunny  western  slope  of 
the  Rockies,  where  they  knew  Roosevelt  for 
what  he  was,  and  loved  him;  from  the  young 

[235] 


THEODORE -ROOSEVELT 

men  everywhere,  from  the  men  with  ideals,  it 
was  a  genuine  shout  for  the  leader  who  spoke 
with  their  tongue,  to  their  hearts.  Senator 
Wolcott  spoke  their  mind  when  he  brought  him 
the  nomination:  "  You,  everywhere  and  at  all 
times,  stood  for  that  which  was  clean  and  up- 
lifting, and  against  everything  that  was  sordid 
and  base.  You  have  shown  the  people  of  this 
country  that  a  political  career  and  good  citizen- 
ship could  go  forward  hand  in  hand.  .  .  .  There 
is  not  a  young  man  in  these  United  States  who 
has  not  found  in  your  life  and  influence  an  in- 
centive to  better  things  and  higher  ideals." 
Against  such  a  force  traditions  went  for  no- 
thing; it  was  strong  enough  to  break  more 
stubborn  ones  than  that  which  made  of  the 
Vice-Presidency  a  political  grave.  In  1904  it 
was  to  be  Roosevelt  for  President. 

Roosevelt  yielded.  His  friends  were  in  de- 
spair; his  enemies  triumphed.  At  last  they 
had  him  where  they  wanted  him. 

Man  proposes,  but  God  disposes.  Now  in 
joy,  and  again  in  tears  and  sorrow,  do  we  reg- 
ister the  decree.  One  brief  year,  and  the  nation 
wept  at  the  bier  of  William  McKinley.  Of 
his  successor  the  President  of  Columbia  Col- 

[236] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

lege  wrote:  "  He  was  not  nominated  to  satisfy 
or  placate,  but  to  succeed.  The  unspeakably 
cruel  and  cowardly  assassin  has  anticipated  the 
slow  and  orderly  processes  of  law." 

He  himself,  standing  within  the  shadow  of 
the  great  sorrow— though,  light  of  heart,  we 
knew  it  not— spoke  these  brave  words  to  his 
people:  "  We  gird  up  our  loins  as  a  nation  with 
the  stern  purpose  to  play  our  part  manfully  in 
winning  the  ultimate  triumph;  and  therefore 
we  turn  scornfully  aside  from  the  paths  of 
mere  ease  and  idleness,  and  with  unfaltering 
steps  tread  the  rough  road  of  endeavor,  smit- 
ing down  the  wrong  and  battling  for  the  right, 
as  Greatheart  smote  and  battled  in  Bunyan's 
immortal  story."  1 

The  campaign  of  that  year  none  of  us  has 
forgotten.  An  incident  of  it  lives  in  my  mem- 
ory as  typical  of  the  spirit  in  which  the  people 
took  his  candidacy,  and  also  with  a  sense  of 
abiding  satisfaction  that  one  thing  was  done 
right,  and  at  the  right  moment,  in  my  sight. 
I  was  coming  up  from  Chatham  Square  one 
night  in  the  closing  days  of  the  canvass,  when 

-  The  concluding  words  of  Vice-President  Roosevelt's  speech 

at  the  Minnesota  State  Fair,  Minneapolis,  Sept.  2,  1902. 

[237] 


THEODORE  'ROOSEVELT 

a  torch  and  a  crowd  attracted  me  to  a  truck 
at  the  lower  end  of  the  Bowery,  from  which 
a  man  was  holding  forth  on  the  issues  involved 
in  the  national  election.  He  was  not  an  effec- 
tive speaker,  and  the  place  needed  that,  if  any 
place  did.  The  block  was  "  the  panhandlers' 
beat,"  one  of  the  wickedest  spots  in  the  world, 
I  believe.  I  stood  and  listened  awhile,  and  the 
desire  to  say  a  word  grew  in  me  until  I  climbed 
on  the  wagon  and,  telling  them  I  was  a  Roose- 
velt man,  asked  for  a  chance.  They  were  will- 
ing enough,  and,  dropping  tariff  and  the  "  hon- 
est dollar  "  that  had  very  little  to  do  with  that 
spot,  I  plunged  at  once  into  Roosevelt's  ca- 
reer as  Governor  and  Police  Commissioner. 
I  thought  with  grim  satisfaction,  as  I  went  on, 
that  we  were  fairly  within  sight  of  "  Mike  " 
Callahan's  saloon,  where  the  fight  over  the  ex- 
cise law  was  fought  out  by  Policeman  Bourke, 
who  dragged  the  proprietor,  kicking  and 
struggling  all  the  way,  to  the  Elizabeth  Street 
station.  He  had  boasted  that  he  had  thrown 
the  keys  of  the  saloon  away,  and  that  no  one 
could  make  him  close  on  Sunday.  Bourke  was 
made  a  sergeant,  and  Roosevelt  and  the  law 
won. 

[238] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

But  of  that  I  made  no  boast  then.  I  told  the 
people  what  Roosevelt  had  done  and  had  tried 
to  do  for  them;  how  we  had  traveled  together 
by  night  through  all  that  neighborhood,  trying 
to  enter  into  the  life  of  the  people  and  their 
needs.  As  the  new  note  rose,  I  saw  the  tene- 
ment blocks  on  the  east  of  the  Bowery  give  up 
their  tenants  to  swell  the  crowd,  and  was  glad. 
Descrying  a  policeman's  uniform  on  its  out- 
skirts, I  reminded  my  hearers  of  how  my  candi- 
date had  stood  for  an  even  show,  for  fair  play 
to  the  man  without  a  pull,  and  for  an  honest 
police.  I  had  got  to  that  point  when  the 
drunken  rounder  who  by  right  should  have  ap- 
peared long  before,  caromed  through  the 
crowd  and  shook  an  inebriated  fist  at  me. 

"  T-tin  s-soldier!  "  he  hiccoughed.  "  Teddy 
Ro-senfeld  he  never  went  to  Cu-u-ba,  no 
more  'n,  no  more  'n — " 

Who  else  it  was  that  had  never  been  to  Cuba 
fate  had  decreed  that  none  of  us  should  know. 
There  came,  unheralded,  forth  from  the  crowd 
a  vast  and  horny  hand  that  smote  the  fellow 
flat  on  the  mouth  with  a  sound  as  of  a  huge 
soul-satisfying  kiss.  He  went  down,  out  of 
sight,  without  a  word.  The  crowd  closed  in 

[239] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

over  him;  not  a  head  was  turned  to  see  what 
became  of  him.  I  do  not  know.  Who  struck 
the  blow  I  did  not  see.  He  was  gone,  that  was 
enough.  It  was  enough,  and  just  right. 

Which  reminds  me  of  another  and  very  dif- 
ferent occasion,  when  I  addressed  a  Sunday- 
evening  audience  in  the  Cooper  Institute  at  the 
other  end  of  the  Bowery  upon  my  favorite 
theme.  The  Cooper  Institute  is  a  great  place, 
a  worthy  monument  to  its  truly  great  founder. 
But  its  Sunday-evening  meetings,  when  ques- 
tions are  in  order,  have  the  faculty  of  attract- 
ing almost  as  many  cranks  as  did  Elijah  the 
Restorer  to  Madison  Square  Garden.  I  had 
hardly  finished  when  a  man  arose  in  the  hall 
and,  pointing  a  menacing  finger  at  me, 
squeaked  out : 

"  You  say  Theodore  Roosevelt  is  a  brave 
man.  How  about  his  shooting  a  Spaniard  in 
the  back?  " 

I  had  been  rather  slow  and  dull  up  till  then, 
in  spite  of  my  theme ;  but  the  fellow  woke  me 
right  up.  My  wife,  who  had  come  over  with 
me  and  sat  in  the  audience,  said  afterward  that 
she  never  saw  a  man  bristle  so  suddenly  in 
her  life. 

[240] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

"  The  man,"  I  cried  out,  "  who  says  that  is 
either  a  fool  or  a  scoundrel.  Which  of  the  two 
are  you? " 

I  don't  believe  he  heard.  His  kind  rarely  do. 
They  never  by  any  chance  get  any  other  side 
of  a  subject  than  their  own,  for  they  never 
can  shake  themselves  off  for  a  moment.  He 
stood  pointing  at  me  still: 

"  Does  not  Holy  Writ  say,  *  Thou  shalt  not 
kiU? '  "  he  went  on. 

"  Yes!  and  on  the  same  page  does  it  not  say 
that '  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against 
thy  neighbor,'  even  if  he  is  the  President  of 
the  United  States?  " 

The  audience  by  this  time  was  upon  its  feet, 
yelling  its  delight.  It  was  what  it  wanted. 
The  crank  sat  down.  In  the  front  row  a  red- 
faced  Irishman  jumped  up  and  down  like  a 
jack-in-the-box,  wildly  excited. 

"  You  let  him  alone,"  he  shouted  to  the  peo- 
ple, shaking  his  hat  at  them;  "let  Professor 
Riis  alone.  He  can  take  care  of  himself. 
Teddy  Roosevelt  is  the  greatest  man  in  the 
country" ;  and,  turning  half  toward  me,  he  shot 
up  a  fist  like  a  ham  and,  grabbing  mine,  yelled 
out,  "  I  druv  him  oncet!  " 

[241] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Crank  after  crank  got  up  with  their  ques- 
tions, and  as  I  looked  out  over  them  bobbing 
in  the  amused  crowd  like  corks  on  a  choppy 
sea,  there  came  into  my  head  Solomon's  pre- 
cept to  answer  a  fool  according  to  his  folly. 
The  President's  first  message  was  just  out. 

"  How  shall  we  interpret  it?  "  queried  a  pe- 
dantic spectacled  loon,  with  slow  deliberation 
checking  the  points  off  on  his  fingers ;  "  shall 
we  class  it  as  an  economic  effort  or  as  a  political 
discourse,  as  a  literary  production  or  as  a — " 

"  The  President's  message,"  I  interrupted, 
"  has  just  been  rendered  into  the  language  of 
the  blind,  and  they  don't  have  any  difficulty  in 
making  it  out." 

The  meeting  broke  up  in  a  great  laugh,  amid 
a  storm  of  protests  from  the  cranks  whose  fun 
was  spoiled.  They  were  not  looking  for  in- 
formation. They  had  come  merely  to  hear 
themselves  talk. 

I  guess  it  is  no  use  beating  about  the  bush, 
telling  stories;  I  have  to  come  to  it.  But  I 
have  n't  got  over  the  shock  the  news  from  Buf- 
falo gave  me  up  there  in  the  Canadian  wilder- 
ness. I  hate  to  think  of  it. 

Roosevelt  had  gone  to  join  his  children  in 

[242] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

the  Adirondacks,  with  the  assurance  of  the  doc- 
tors that  President  McKinley  was  mending, 
and  in  no  danger.  He  had  come  straight  to 
Buffalo  at  the  first  news  of  the  murderous  at- 
tempt upon  the  President's  life,  thereby  giving 
great  offense  to  the  faultfinders,  who  could  see 
in  the  Vice-President's  solicitude  for  his  friend 
and  chief  only  a  ghoulish  desire  to  make  sure 
of  the  job.  And  now,  when  he  went  with 
lightened  heart  to  tell  his  own  the  good  news, 
they  cried  out  in  horror  that  he  went  hunting 
while  the  President  lay  fighting  death.  They 
were  as  far  from  the  truth  then  as  before.  He, 
knowing  little  and  caring  less  what  was  said  of 
him,  was  resting  quietly  with  his  wife  and  the 
children,  who  had  been  sick,  at  the  Upper 
Tahawus  Club  on  Mount  Marcy.  No  one  in 
that  party  had  thought  of  hunting  or  play. 
Their  minds  were  on  more  serious  matters.  It 
was  arranged  that  they  were  all  to  go  out  of 
the  woods  on  Saturday,  September  14,  on 
which  day  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  summoned  his 
secretary  to  meet  him  at  his  Long  Island  home. 
He  had  come  from  Buffalo  only  two  days  be- 
fore. Friday  found  them  all  upon  the  moun- 
tain: the  Vice-President,  Mrs.  Roosevelt,  and 

[243] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

their  nephews,  the  two  Robinson  boys,  and  Mr. 
James  McNaughton,  their  host.  Ted,,  the 
oldest  of  the  Roosevelt  boys,  had  gone  fish- 
ing. The  rest,  with  two  guides,  formed  the 
party. 

Far  up  the  mountain  side  there  lies  a 
pretty  lake,  the  "  Tear  in  the  Clouds,"  whence 
the  Hudson  flows  into  the  lowlands.  There  the 
party  camped  after  a  long  and  arduous  tramp 
over  the  mountain  trail.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  had 
gone  back  with  the  children.  From  his  seat  on 
a  fallen  log  Roosevelt  followed  the  gray  out- 
line of  Mount  Marcy's  bald  peak  piercing  mist 
and  cloud.  Up  there  might  be  sunshine. 
Where  they  were  was  wet  discomfort.  A  desire 
grew  in  him  to  climb  the  peak  and  see,  and  he 
went  up.  But  there  was  no  sunshine  there. 
All  the  world  lay  wrapped  in  a  gray,  impene- 
trable mist.  It  rained,  a  cold  and  chilly  rain 
in  the  clouds. 

They  went  down  again,  and  reached  the 
wood-line  tired  and  hungry.  There  they  spread 
their  lunch  on  the  grass  and  sat  down  to  it. 
Upon  the  quiet  talk  of  the  party  there  broke 
suddenly  an  unusual  sound  in  that  quiet  soli- 
tude, the  snapping  of  a  twig,  a  swift  step.  A 

[244] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

man  came  out  of  the  woods,  waving  a  yellow 
envelope  in  his  hand. 

Silence  fell  upon  them  all  as  they  watched 
Mr.  Roosevelt  break  it  and  read  the  message. 
It  was  brief:  "  The  President's  condition  has 
changed  for  the  worse. — CORTELYOU."  That 
was  all.  He  read  it  over  once,  twice,  and  sat 
awhile,  the  message  in  his  hand,  grave  shadows 
gathering  in  his  face.  Then  he  arose,  the  food 
untouched,  and  said  briefly:  "  I  must  go  back 
at  once." 

They  fell  in  behind  him  on  the  homeward 
trail.  Silent  and  sad,  the  little  procession 
wound  its  way  through  the  gloomy  forest. 
Dusk  was  setting  in  when  they  reached  the 
cottage.  No  news  was  there.  The  Vice- 
President's  secretary,  warned  in  the  early 
morning  by  despatches  from  Buffalo,  had 
started  for  the  mountains  on  a  special  train, 
but  the  road  ended  at  North  Creek,  more  than 
thirty  miles  away,  and  from  there  he  had  been 
telegraphing  and  telephoning  all  day  that  he 
would  wait  till  Mr.  Roosevelt  came.  Of  this 
nothing  was  known  on  the  mountain.  The 
telephone  line  ended  at  the  lower  club-house 
—ten  .miles  farther  down,  and  the  messages 

[245] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

lay  there.  No  one  had  thought  of  sending 
them  up. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  sent  runners  down  at  once  to 
find  out  if  there  was  any  summons  for  him, 
and  made  ready  for  an  immediate  start  before 
he  changed  his  clothing.  He  was  wet  through. 
The  dusk  became  darkness,  and  the  hours  wore 
far  into  the  evening.  He  walked  up  and  down 
alone  in  front  of  the  cottage,  thinking  it  all 
over.  It  could  not  be.  He  had  arranged  to 
be  advised  at  once  of  the  least  change,  and  no 
word  had  come.  Up  to  that  morning  all  the 
bulletins  were  hopeful.  There  must  be  some 
awful  mistake.  Black  night  sat  upon  the 
mountain  and  no  message  yet.  He  went  in  to 
snatch  such  sleep  as  he  could  get.  Too  soon 
he  might  need  it. 

In  the  midnight  hour  came  the  summons. 
Mr.  McNaughton  himself  brought  the  mes- 
sage: "  Come  at  once."  In  ten  minutes  Mr. 
Roosevelt  threw  his  grip  into  the  buckboard 
that  was  hurriedly  driven  up,  and  gave  the 
word  to  go. 

How  that  wild  race  with  death  was  run  and 
lost— for  before  it  was  half  finished  President 
McKinley  had  breathed  his  last,  and  there  was 

[246] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

no  longer  any  Vice-President  hastening  to  his 
bedside — will  never  be  told.  But  for  a  fright- 
ened deer  that  sprang  now  and  then  from  the 
roadside,  stopping  in  the  brush  to  watch  wide- 
eyed  the  plunging  team  and  the  swaying  lan- 
tern disappear  in  the  gloom,  no  living  thing 
saw  it.  The  two  in  the  wagon— the  man  on  the 
driver's  seat  and  the  silent  shape  behind  him 
— had  other  thoughts:  the  one  for  the  rough 
trail  which  he  vainly  tried  to  make  out  through 
the  mist ;  at  any  moment  the  wheels  might  leave 
their  rut  or  crash  against  a  boulder,  and  team 
and  all  be  flung  a  hundred  feet  down  a 
precipice.  As  for  the  other,  his  thoughts  were 
far  away  at  a  bedside  from  which  a  dying  man 
was  whispering  words  of  comfort  to  his  weep- 
ing wife.  Mechanically,  when  the  driver 
turned  to  him  with  warning  of  the  risks  they 
were  taking,  he  repeated,  as  if  he  had  scarcely 
heard:  "  Go  on — go  right  ahead!  " 

The  new  day  was  an  hour  old  and  over  when 
the  vehicle  stopped  at  the  lower  club-house, 
mud-splashed  from  hub  to  hood.  Here  Mr. 
Roosevelt  heard  for  the  first  time  from  his 
secretary,  who  had  watched  sleepless  at  the 
other  end  of  the  wire,  the  tragedy  then  pass- 

[247] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ing  into  history  in  the  city  of  Buffalo.  Secre- 
tary Loeb  knew  the  dangers  of  the  mountain 
roads  on  a  dark  and  rainy  night,  and  pleaded 
with  him  to  wait  till  morning. 

"  I  will  come  right  through,  as  quick  as 
I  can,"  was  the  answer  he  received;  and  before 
he  could  ring  the  telephone  bell,  Mr.  Roosevelt 
was  in  his  seat  again,  and  the  horses  were 
plunging  through  the  night  toward  the  distant 
railroad. 

Down  hill  and  up,  through  narrow  defiles, 
over  bare  hillsides  where  the  wheels  scraped 
and  slid  upon  the  hard  -rock  and  the  horses' 
hoofs  struck  fire  at  every  jump;  on  perilous 
brinks  hidden  in  the  shrouding  fog,  and  ten- 
fold more  perilous  for  that ;  now  and  then  a  bog- 
hole  through  which  the  wheels  of  the  buckboard 
sank  to  the  hubs;  past  a  little  school-house 
where  a  backwood's  dance  was  just  breaking 
up,  the  women  scattering  in  sudden  fright  as 
the  traveler  drove  by.  Then  the  wayside  hotel 
with  waiting  horses  in  relay,  and  two  thirds  of 
the  way  was  covered. 

Once  more  the  gloom  and  the  forest;  once 
more  the  grim  traveler  gazing  ahead,  ahead,  as 
if  he  would  pierce  the  veil  of  fate  and  wrest 

[248] 


THE  SUMMONS  ON  MOUNT  MARCY 

from  it  its  secret,  repeating  his  monotonous 
"Go  on!  Keep  right  ahead!"  In  the  city 
by  the  lake  William  McKinley  lay  dead. 
Through  the  darkness  rode  the  President, 
clinging  obstinately  to  hope. 

So  the  dawn  came.  As  the  first  faint  tinge 
of  it  crept  into  the  night,  and  trees  and  rocks 
whirling  past  took  on  dim  outlines,  the  steam- 
ing horses  drew  up  at  the  railroad  station  at 
North  Creek,  where  a  puffing  engine  had  been 
in  waiting  many  hours.  From  the  platform 
Secretary  Loeb  came  down,  bareheaded: 

"  The  worst  has  happened,"  he  said.  "  The 
President  is  dead." 

So,  to  this  man, who  had  been  tried  and  found 
faithful  in  much,  came  the  call  to  take  his 
place  among  the  rulers  of  the  earth. 


t949] 


XI 
WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 


XI 
WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

NOW  that  by  good  luck  I  have  after 
all  presented  in  something  like  orderly 
fashion  the  main  facts  in  Theodore 
Roosevelt's  career, — of  which  every  one  knows 
more  or  less,  and  which  he  regards  as  more  or 
less  significant,  according  to  his  attitude  to- 
-vard  the  old  college  professor's  prediction, 
many  years  ago,  that  his  students  might  rate 
our  people's  fitness  for  self-government  by  the 
headway  Roosevelt  made  with  his  ideals  and 
ambitions — now  that  we  have  got  so  far,  I  can 
hear  my  reader  ask:  "But  about  himself; 
about  the  man,  the  friend?  You  promised  to 
tell  us.  We  want  to  know."  And  so  you  shall. 
I  am  going  to  tell  you  now,— at  least,  I  am  go- 
ing to  try.  Here,  a  whole  week,  have  I  been 
walking  about  the  garden,  upon  which  winter 

[253] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

had  laid  its  rude  hand  and  put  all  the  flowers  to 
sleep;  only  the  wild  thyme  I  brought  down 
from  the  Berkshire  Hills  stands  green  and  fra- 
grant, as  does  the  sunny  field  where  I  dug  it, 
in  my  memory  ever.  A  whole  week  have  I 
walked  about  among  the  bare  bushes,  poking 
in  the  dead  leaves,  trying  to  think  how.  Some- 
thing very  learned  and  grand  had  come  into 
my  head.  But  how  can  you  analyze  your 
friend?  Men's  minds  and  men's  motives  you 
may  analyze,  if  you  care  and  have  a  taste 
that  way, — and  a  pretty  mess  you  will  make  of 
it  more  than  half  the  time.  But  resolve  a  sun- 
beam, or  a  tear,  into  its  original  elements,  and 
what  do  you  get?  So  much  oxygen,  perhaps; 
so  much  salt — let  the  chemist  tell  in  his  learned 
phrase ;  and  when  all  is  told  your  sunbeam  and 
your  tear  have  escaped  you.  Whatever  else  you 
have,  them  you  have  not.  No,  I  shall  not  try 
that.  I  shall  tell  you  of  him  just  as  I  knew 
him.  I  like  him  best  that  way,  anyhow,— just 
as  he  is. 

But  first  let  me  give  fair  warning:  if  there 
be  any  among  my  readers  still-hunting  for 
special  privilege,  let  him  get  off  right  here; 
for  he  won't  like  him.  Whether  it  be  the  Trust 

[254] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

that  has  nothing  to  conceal, — dear  me,  no! 
— yet  most  strenuously  objects  to  the  public 
knowing  about  its  business;  the  corporation 
with  franchises  paying  big  dividends  but  no 
taxes;  the  labor  leader  who  has  stared  himself 
blind  upon  the  dividends,  and  to  whom  the 
pearly  gates  shall  not  swing  unless  they  have 
the  union  label  on  them ;  or  the  every-day  dolt 
who  must  have  the  railroad  track  between  him- 
self and  his  brother  of  darker  skin,  of  different 
faith  or  tongue  or  birthplace;  who,  like  the 
woman  of  the  Four  Hundred  in  Philadelphia, 
"  must  be  buried  in  St.  Peter's  churchyard 
because,  really,  on  resurrection  day  she  must 
rise  with  her  own  set " — whichever  his  own 
particular  folly  in  this  land  of  no  privilege 
and  of  an  equal  chance,  and  wherever  found, 
he  will  be  against  Roosevelt,  instinctively  and 
always.  He  will  fight  him  at  the  polls  and  in 
the  convention;  he  will  bet  his  money  against 
him,  and  pour  it  out  like  water  across  every 
party  line  that  held  him  before,  and  by  the 
measure  of  his  success  we  can  grade  our  own 
grip  on  the  ideal  of  the  Republic.  That  was 
what  the  professor  I  spoke  of  meant,  and  he 
was  right.  And  so  are  they,  according  to  their 

[255] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

light.     Roosevelt  is  their  enemy,  the  enemy 
forever  of  all  for  which  they  stand. 

Because  he  stands  for  fair  play ;  for  an  even 
chance  to  all  who  would  use  it  for  their  own 
and  for  their  country's  good;  for  a  broad 
Americanism  that  cares  nothing  for  color, 
creed,  or  the  wheref  rom  of  the  citizen,  so  that, 
now  he  is  here,  he  be  an  American  in  heart  and 
soul;  an  Americanism  that  reaches  down  to 
hard-pan.  "  Ultimately,"  he  said  at  Grant's 
Tomb,  when  Governor  of  New  York, — "  ulti- 
mately, no  nation  can  be  great  unless  its  great- 
ness is  laid  on  foundations  of  righteousness 
and  decency."  And  at  Syracuse  on  Labor 
Day  I  saw  ten  thousand  stirred  by  his  words: 
"  If  alive  to  their  true  interests,  rich  and  poor 
alike  will  set  their  faces  like  flint  against  the 
spirit  which  seeks  personal  advantage  by  over- 
riding the  laws,  whether  that  spirit  shows  itself 
in  the  form  of  bodily  violence  by  one  set  of 
men  or  in  the  form  of  vulpine  cunning  by 
another  set  of  men."  These  are  his  profes- 
sions. I  know  how  they  square  with  his  prac- 
tice, for  I  have  seen  the  test  put  to  him  a  hun- 
dred times  in  little  things  and  in  great,  and 
never  once  did  he  fail  to  ask  the  question,  if 

[256] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

there  was  any  doubt  about  it,  after  all  was  said 
and  done,  "  Which  is  right?  "  And  as  it  was 
answered,  so  was  the  thing  done. 

His  ambition?  Yes,  he  has  that.  Is  it  to 
be  President?  He  would  like  to  sit  in  the 
White  House,  elected  by  the  people,  for  no 
man  I  ever  met  has  so  real  and  deep  a  belief 
in  the  ultimate  righteousness  of  the  people,  in 
their  wish  to  do  the  thing  that  is  right,  if  it  can 
be  shown  them.  But  it  is  not  that.  If  I  know 
anything  of  the  man,  I  know  this :  that  he  would 
fight  in  the  ranks  to  the  end  of  life  for  the 
things  worth  fighting  for,  rather  than  reach 
out  a  hand  to  grasp  the  Presidency,  if  it  were 
to  be  had  as  the  price  of  one  of  the  principles 
upon  which  his  life  has  been  shaped  in  the  sight 
of  us  all.  He  might,  indeed,  quarrel  with  the 
party  of  a  lifetime,  for  he  would  as  little  sur- 
render his  conscience  to  a  multitude  of  men  as 
to  one,1  and  he  has  said  that  he  does  not  num- 
ber party  loyalty  with  the  Ten  Commandments, 
firmly  as  he  holds  to  it  to  get  things  done. 
Party  allegiance  is  not  a  compelling  force  with 
him;  he  is  the  compelling  force.  "I  believe 

Roosevelt's  speech  to  the  West  Side  Republican  Club, 
New  York,  March,  1899. 
[257] 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

very  firmly,"  he  said  to  the  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciation in  New  York,  in  1899,  "  that  I  can  best 
render  aid  to  my  party  by  doing  all  that  in  me 
lies  to  make  that  party  responsive  to  the  needs 
of  the  people;  and  just  so  far  as  I  work  along 
those  lines  I  have  the  right  to  challenge  the 
support  of  every  decent  man,  no  matter  what 
his  party  may  be."  That  is  his  platform, 
always  was.  In  matters  of  mere  opinion  I  can 
conceive  of  his  changing  clear  around,  if  he 
were  shown  that  he  was  wrong.  I  should  ex- 
pect it ;  indeed,  I  do  not  see  how  he  could  help 
it.  It  was  ever  more  important  to  him  to 
be  right,  and  to  do  right,  than  to  be  logical  and 
consistent. 

And  that  really  is  his  ambition,  has  been 
since  the  day  he  rose  in  the  Assembly  Hall  at 
Albany  and  denounced  the  conspirators  of  his 
own  party  and  of  the  other  to  their  faces:  to 
do  the  right,  and  to  so  do  it  in  the  sight  of  his 
fellow-men  that  they  shall  see  that  it  is  the 
right  and  follow  it;  that  the  young,  especially, 
shall  make  the  high  and  the  right  choice  at  the 
beginning  of  life  that  puts  ever  more  urgent 
questions  to  the  succeeding  generations.  That 
is  the  mainspring  and  the  motive.  "  Because 

[258] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

But  about  himself.  You  know  how  he  looks. 
To  my  mind,  he  is  as  handsome  a  man  as  I  ever 
saw ;  and  I  know  I  am  right,  for  my  wife  says 
so  too,  and  that  settles  it.  Which  reminds  me 
of  the  time  I  lectured  in  a  New  York  town  with 
a  deaf  man  in  the  audience  who  was  no  friend 
of  Roosevelt.  The  chairman  introduced  me 
with  the  statement  that  he  had  heard  that  the 
Governor  called  me  "  the  most  useful  man  in 
New  York."  My  friend  with  the  ear-trumpet 
did  n't  quite  catch  it,  and  was  in  high  dud- 
geon after  the  meeting. 

"  Did  n't  I  tell  you  Teddy  Roosevelt  ain't 
got  no  sense?  "  he  cried.  "  The  idea  of  calling 
that  man  Riis  the  most  beautiful  man  in  New 
York !  Why,  he  is  as  plain  as  can  be." 

By  handsome  I  do  not  mean  beautiful, 
but  manly.  Stern  he  may,  indeed,  appear  at 
times,  though  to  my  mind  nearly  all  his  por- 
traits do  him  hideous  injustice  in  that  respect. 
I  have  seen  but  two  that  were  wholly  himself. 
One  was  a  pen  sketch  of  him  on  horseback  at 
the  head  of  his  men,  climbing  some  mountain 
ridge.  There  he  had  on  his  battle  face,  the 
dark  look  I  have  seen  come  in  the  middle  of 
some  pleasant  chat  with  gay  friends.  I  knew 

[261] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

then  that  he  was  alone  and  that  the  burden  was 
upon  him,  and  I  felt  always  as  if,  upon  some 
pretext,  any  pretext,  I  would  like  to  get  him 
away  where  he  could  be  by  himself  for  a  while. 
The  other,  curiously,  was  an  old  campaign  pos- 
ter from  the  days  when  he  ran  for  Governor. 
It  hung  over  my  desk  till  the  boys  in  the  office, 
who  used  to  decorate  the  volunteers'  slouch-hat 
with  more  bows  than  a  Tyrolese  swain  ever 
wore  to  the  village  fair,  made  an  end  of  it,  to 
my  great  grief.  For  it  was  the  only  picture 
of  him  I  ever  saw  that  had  the  smile  his  friends 
love.  There  was  never  another  like  it.  And 
it  is  for  them  only.  I  have  come  into  a  room 
packed  full  of  people  crowding  to  speak  with 
him,  and  seen  it  light  up  his  face  as  with  a 
ray  of  sunshine  from  a  leaden  sky,  and  his  hand 
go  up  in  the  familiar  salute  I  meet  out  West 
nowadays,  but  nowhere  else.  Odd  how  peo- 
ple, even  those  who  should  know  him  well,  can 
misunderstand.  "  I  saw  him  several  times  in 
Colorado,"  wrote  one  who  likes  him,  after  his 
recent  Western  trip,  "  and  he  pleased  me  very 
much  by  his  growing  tenderness  toward  men 
and  animals.  His  chief  weakness  has  always 
seemed  to  me  his  almost  cruel  strength."  To 

[262] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

me  he  has  always  seemed  as  tender  as  a  woman. 
Perhaps  they  had  been  on  the  hunting-trail 
together;  or  on  one  of  his  long  Washington 
walks  that  were  the  terror  of  his  friends.  I 
am  told  they  lay  awake  nights,  some  of  them, 
trembling  for  fear  he  might  pick  them  out 
next. 

By  contrast  there  comes  to  me  the  recollec- 
tion of  a  walk  we  took  together  in  the  woods 
out  at  Oyster  Bay.  It  was  after  I  had  been 
sick,  and  some  one  had  told  him  that  I  could  not 
walk  very  fast,  and  must  not,  any  more.  So 
I  infer;  for  we  had  not  gone  five  furlongs  at 
the  old  clipping  gait,  he  a  little  ahead,  thrash- 
ing through  the  bushes,  when  he  suddenly  came 
back  and,  taking  my  arm,  walked  very  slowly, 
telling  me  something  with  great  earnestness, 
to  cover  up  his  remorse.  I  have  never  any- 
where met  a  man  so  anxiously  considerate  of  a 
friend's  weakness  as  he  ever  was  and  is,  though 
happily  in  this  instance  there  was  no  need  of  it. 
I  have  been  learning  to  ride  these  days,  and 
ride  hard,  to  show  him,  and  also  to  have  the 
fun  of  going  out  with  him  again.  I  cannot 
think  of  anything  finer. 

It  seems  to  me,  when  I  think  back  now,  that 

[263] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

all  the  time  I  have  known  him,  with  all  the 
burden  and  care  of  such  a  career  as  his  on  his 
shoulders,  he  was  forever  planning  some  kind 
act  toward  a  friend,  carrying  him  and  his  con- 
cerns with  him  incessantly  amid  the  crowding 
of  a  thousand  things.  His  memory  is  some- 
thing prodigious.  I  happened  once  to  mention 
to  him  that  when  next  I  came  to  Washington 
I  would  bring  my  little  boy. 

"  And  don't  forget,"  I  said,  "  when  you  see 
him  to  ask  if  he  goes  regularly  to  Sunday- 
school."  To  his  laughing  inquiry  I  made  an- 
swer that  the  lad  would  occasionally  be  tempted 
by  the  sunshine  and  some  game  up  by  the  golf- 
grounds,  whereupon  I  would  caution  him  to 
keep  his  record  clear  against  the  day  when  he 
would  see  the  President,  who,  being  the  boys' 
as  well  as  the  papas'  President,  would  natu- 
rally ask  him  if  he  "  went  regular."  And  of 
course  he  must  back  me  up  in  this;  for  little 
boys  remember,  too.  The  thing  had  long  since 
gone  out  of  my  head  when  I  brought  Vivi  to 
the  White  House;  but  not  so  with  him.  He 
took  him  between  his  knees  and  asked  him,  first 
thing,  if  he  went  to  Sunday-school  like  a  good 
boy;  and  so  the  day  and  my  reputation  were 

[264] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

saved,  and  the  boy  made  happy;  for  he  had 
kept  his  slate  clean. 

It  was  at  that  visit  that,  after  a  thorough  in- 
spection of  the  premises,  the  President  asked 
the  lad  what  he  thought  of  the  White  House. 

"  Pretty  good,"  said  he.  "  But  I  like  better 
to  ride  up  and  down  in  the  elevator  at  the 
hotel."  It  was  his  first  experience  with  an 
elevator,  and  he  made  full  use  of  it. 

The  President  considered  him  thoughtfully 
a  moment.  What  visions  of  politicians  and 
delegations  passed  before  his  mind's  eye  I 
know  not;  but  it  was  with  almost  a  half -sigh 
that  he  said:  "  So  would  I,  my  boy,  sometimes." 

That  slouch-hat  of  his,  by  the  way,  at  which 
some  folks  took  umbrage,  at  the  Philadelphia 
Convention,  I  don't  believe  he  gave  as  much 
thought  to,  in  all  the  years  he  wore  it,  or 
one  like  it,  as  did  those  good  people  in  the  three 
or  four  days  of  the  convention.  He  did  not 
wear  it  because  the  rough-riders  did,  but  be- 
cause it  is  his  natural  head-gear.  He  began 
it  in  Mulberry  Street,  and  he  has  kept  it  up 
ever  since.  He  hates  a  stovepipe,  and  so  do 
I;  but  I  thought  to  honor  him  especially  one 
day,  when  I  was  going  traveling  with  him,  by 

[265] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

putting  on  mine;  and  all  I  got  for  it  was,  when 
General  Greene  got  into  the  carriage  with  a 
straw  hat  on,  a  deep  sigh  of  relief  and  an 
"  Oh,  I  am  so  glad  you  did  n't  come  in  a 
top -hat,"  with  a  malicious  gleam  toward  me. 
Next  time  I  leave  it  home.  Perhaps  it  was  to 
pay  me  for  being  late.  He  had  arranged  to 
pick  me  up  at  my  home  station,  \vhen  going 
through  to  the  city ;  but  his  train  was  a  full  half - 
hour  ahead  of  time,  and  who  could  have  fore- 
seen that?  What  other  President,  do  you  sup- 
pose, would  have  waited  fifteen  minutes  at  the 
depot  with  his  special  train  while  he  sent  up 
to  the  house  for  me,  and  then  received  me  with 
a  laugh? 

That  was  characteristic  of  him,  both  the 
waiting  and  the  being  ahead  of  time.  It  was 
night,  and  there  was  nothing  on  the  road  to 
hinder,  so  he  just  slammed  through.  In  that 
also  he  is  a  typical  American  in  the  best 
sense :  given  a  thing  to  be  done,  he  makes  sure 
of  the  way  and  then  goes  ahead  and  does  it. 
"  The  way  to  do  a  thing  is  to  do  it,"  might  be 
his  motto ;  it  certainly  is  his  way.  But  the  man 
who  concludes  from  that  that  he  runs  at  it  head- 
long makes  the  mistake  of  his  life.  I  know  ab- 

[266] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

solutely  no  man  who  so  carefully  weighs  all 
the  chances  for  and  against,  ever  with  the  one 
dominating  motive  in  the  background — "  Is  it 
right?  " — to  steer  him  straight.  In  the  Police 
Department  he  surprised  me  over  and  over 
again  by  his  quick  grasp  and  mastery  of 
things  until  then  foreign  to  his  experience. 
He  would  propose  some  action  and  turn  it  over 
to  me  for  review  because  I  had  been  there 
twenty  years  to  his  one ;  and  I  would  point  out 
reefs  I  thought  he  had  forgotten.  But  not  he ; 
he  had  charted  them  all,  thought  of  every  con- 
tingency, and  done  it  all  in  an  hour,  when  I 
would  be  poring  over  the  problem  for  days, 
perhaps  weeks.  And  when  it  had  all  been  gone 
over  he  would  say: 

"  There!  we  will  do  it.  It  is  the  best  we  can 
do.  If  it  turns  out  that  there  is  anything 
wrong,  we  will  do  it  over  again."  But  I  do  not 
remember  that  he  ever  had  to. 

Mere  pride  of  opinion  he  has  none.  No  one 
ever  estimated  his  own  powers,  his  own  capa- 
cities, more  modestly  than  he.  Something  I 
said  one  day  brought  this  matter  up,  and  few 
things  have  touched  me  as  did  the  humility  with 
which  this  strong  man  said :  "  I  know  the  very 

[267] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ordinary  kind  of  man  I  am  to  fill  this  great 
office.  I  know  that  my  ideals  are  common- 
place. I  can  only  insist  upon  them  as  funda- 
mental, for  they  are  that.  Not  in  the  least  doing 
anything  great,  I  can  try,  and  I  am  trying, 
to  do  my  duty  on  the  level  where  I  am  put, 
and,  so  far  as  I  can  see  the  way,  the  whole 
of  it."  And  I  thought  of  his  talk  to  the  New 
York  Chamber  of  Commerce  on  the  ".homely 
virtues  "  as  a  solvent  of  our  industrial  and 
other  problems,  and  his  counsel  to  every  good 
citizen  to  be  able  and  willing  to  "  pull  his  own 
weight."  He  has  to  pull  the  weight  of  all  of 
us  along  with  his  own.  If  these  plain  sketches 
help  some  who  do  not  know  him  to  make  out 
how  patiently,  how  thoughtfully  he  labors  at 
it,  how  steadfastly  he  is  on  guard,  I  shall  be 
glad  I  wrote  them. 

As  I  am  writing  this  now,  there  comes  to 
mind  really  the  finest  compliment  I  ever  heard 
paid  him,  and  quite  unintentionally.  The  lady 
who  said  it  was  rather  disappointed,  it  seemed. 
She  was  looking  for  some  great  hero  in  whom 
to  embody  all  her  high  ideals,  and,  said  she, 
"  I  always  wanted  to  make  Roosevelt  out  that; 
but,  somehow,  every  time  he  did  something  that 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

"  Yes,  Mr.  President,"  said  he;  "  there  is." 

"  Why?  "  President  Roosevelt  wastes  few 
words  when  in  earnest  about  anything. 

General  Corbin  explained  that  it  was  a 
measure  of  economy.  The  telegraph  tolls 
were  heavy.  An  officer  had  a  code  word,  just 
one,  to  pay  for,  whereas  to  send  the  whole 
name  and  place  of  a  private  soldier  under 
the  Pacific  Ocean  might  easily  cost,  perhaps, 
twenty-five  dollars.  The  President  heard  him 
out. 

"  Corbin,"  he  said,  "  can  you  telegraph  from 
here  to  the  Philippines?  " 

The  General  thought  he  might  wait  till  he 
got  to  Washington;  he  was  going  in  an  hour. 

"  No,"  said  the  President;  "  no,  we  will  not 
wait.  Send  the  order  to  have  the  names  tele- 
graphed, now.  Those  mothers  gave  the  best 
they  had  to  their  country.  We  will  not  have 
them  breaking  their  hearts  for  twenty-five  dol- 
lars or  for  fifty.  Save  the  money  somewhere 
else." 

Ajid  he  sent  one  of  his  rare  smiles  across 
the  table,  that  made  my  heart  light,  and  many 
another,  from  Maine  to  Texas.  The  order 
went  out  from  the  table,  then  and  there,  and, 

[271] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

before  we  had  finished  our  luncheon,  was  speed- 
ing under  the  sea  to  the  far  East, 

I  was  an  unintentional  listener  that  day  to 
the  instructions  Generals  Young  and  Corbin 
received  for  their  interview  with  Emperor  Wil- 
liam; they  were  about  to  go  abroad.  I  doubt 
if  ever  greeting  from  the  Executive  of  one 
great  country  to  the  head  of  another  was  more 
informal  than  that,  and,  equally,  if  there  ever 
was  a  heartier. 

"  Tell  him,"  said  the  President,—"  tell  the 
Emperor  that  I  would  like  to  see  him  ride  at 
the  head  of  his  troops.  By  George,  I  would ! 
And  give  him  my  hearty  regards.  Some  day 
we  shall  yet  have  a  spin  together." 

I  hope  they  may.  Those  who  know  Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  have  met  the  Emperor  say 
that  in  much  they  are  alike:  two  strong,  mas- 
terful young  men  of  honest,  resolute  purpose, 
and  the  faith  in  it  that  gets  things  done. 
But  they  face  different  ways:  the  one  toward 
the  past,  with  its  dead  rule  "  by  the  grace  of 
God  ";  the  other  to  the  light  of  the  new  day 
of  the  living  democracy  that  in  its  fullness  shall 
make  of  the  man  a  king  in  his  own  right,  by 
his  undimmed  manhood,  please  God. 

[272] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

I  am  told  that  the  generals  carried  out  their 
instructions  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  were 
given,  to  the  great  delight  of  the  Emperor,  who 
asked  General  Corbin  if  he  had  ever  before 
been  in  Germany.  The  General  said  not  in 
that  part  of  it. 

"  Which  part,  then? "  asked  the  Emperor. 

"  In  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis,  your  Maj- 
esty," responded  the  General,  and  the  Em- 
peror laughed  till  his  sides  shook.  His  brother 
had  told  him  about  those  cities. 

We  went  home  in  the  same  train,  and  Gen- 
eral Young  and  I  sat  together  in  the  car.  I 
had  been  reading  the  "  Sunday-school  Times," 
and  it  lay  on  the  opposite  seat  so  that  the  Gen- 
eral could  read  the  title.  He  regarded  it 
fixedly  for  a  while,  then  poked  it  cautiously 
with  the  end  of  his  stick,  as  who  should  say,  "  I 
wonder — now — what —  I  read  him  like  a 
book,  fighting-man  to  the  finger-tips  that  he 
is,  but  said  nothing  until  curiosity  got  the  bet- 
ter of  him  and  he  asked  some  question  about 
it.  Then  I  reached  out  for  the  paper. 

"Oh,  yes,  General!  This  is  the  paper  for 
you.  See  here,"— and  I  pointed  to  a  column 
telling  of  all  the  big  fighters  in  the  Old 

[273] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Testament,  the  Maccabees  and  the  rest,  with 
their  battles  in  chronological  order,  and  what 
they  were  about.  The  old  warrior's  eyes 
kindled. 

"Well,  I  never!  "  he  said,  and  took  the  paper 
up  with  an  evident  respect  that  contrasted  com- 
ically with  his  gingerly  way  of  before.  The 
General  of  the  Army  will  forgive  me  for  telling 
on  him.  He  has  my  heartiest  friendship  and 
regard.  I  expect  to  see  him  yet  conduct  a 
Sunday-school  on  Maccabean  lines,  and  we 
shall  all  be  glad.  For  that  is  what  we  and  the 
Sunday-school  want. 

But  though  ordinarily  President  Roosevelt 
is  the  most  democratic  of  men,  he  does  not  lack 
a  full  measure  of  dignity  when  occasion  re- 
quires it.  The  man  whom  I  had  seen  telling 
stories  of  his  regiment  to  a  school  full  of  little 
Italian  boys  in  the  Sullivan  Street  slum,  had, 
a  little  while  after  the  interview  with  the  gen- 
erals, to  receive  a  delegation  from  the  French 
people,  and  it  happened  that  one  of  the  guests 
of  that  day  was  present.  He  told  me  that  he 
never  was  prouder  of  the  President  and  of  his 
people  than  when  he  saw  him  meet  the  distin- 
guished strangers.  And  so  were  they.  They 

[274] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

spoke  of  it  as  the  honor  of  a  lifetime  to  be  re- 
ceived by  President  Roosevelt. 

It  is  just  the  human  feeling  that  levels  all 
differences  and  makes  kin  of  all  who  have 
claim  to  the  brotherhood ;  searches  out  and  lays 
hold  of  the  good  streak  in  man  wherever  it  is 
found.  It  accounts  for  the  patience  I  have 
known  him  to  exercise  where  no  one  would  have 
expected  it;  and  it  accounts,  to  my  way  of 
thinking,  for  the  friendships  that  have  existed 
between  him  and  some  men  as  far  from  his 
way  of  thinking  in  all  other  respects  as  one 
could  well  imagine.  I  know.  I  ever  had  a 
soft  spot  for  "  Paddy  "  Divver,  with  whom 
I  disagreed  in  all  things  that  touched  his  pub- 
lic life  as  fundamentally  as  that  was  possible. 
But  there  was  a  mighty  good  streak  in  "  Pad- 
dy," for  all  his  political  ill-doings.  As  a  police 
judge  he  came  as  near  doing  ideal  justice  in 
all  matters  that  had  nothing  to  do  with  politics 
as  any  man  who  ever  sat  on  the  bench,  and  he 
was  not  bothered  in  his  quest  by  the  law  half 
as  much.  I  remember — but  no,  "  Paddy  " 
is  dead,  and  the  story  shall  remain  untold. 
Some  would  not  understand;  but  I  did,  for 
I  had  in  mind  the  Kadi  administering  justice 

[275] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  the  gate,  and  this  fellow  needed  that  kind 
if  the  law  was  powerless  to  reach  him. 

I  told  the  President  when,  at  his  recent  visit 
to  Ellis  Island,  he  had  personally  heard  the 
case  of  a  woman  detained  under  the  rules,  but 
whom  my  friend  on  the  police  bench  would 
have  discharged  with  a  ten-dollar  bill  in  her 
pocket,  that  his  judgment  was  almost  equal  to 
"  Paddy's,"  whereat  he  laughed  in  amusement, 
for  our  dealings — "  Paddy's  "  and  mine — had 
been  the  cause  of  his  poking  fun  at  me  be- 
fore. But  when  I  told  him  of  what  befell  me  in 
Chicago  on  a  visit  there,  he  said  he  should 
presently  have  to  cut  my  acquaintance,  and 
I  was  bound  to  agree  with  him.  I  had  gone 
to  the  ball  of  the  Hon.  Bath-house  John's  con- 
stituents, to  see  the  show ;  and  when  their  great 
leader  heard  of  my  being  from  New  York, 
nothing  was  too  good  for  me.  Evidently, 
he  took  me  for  "  one  of  the  b'ys,"  for  when 
the  champagne  had  opened  wide  the  flood- 
gates of  liberality  and  companionship,  he  ad- 
dressed me  confidentially  in  this  wise : 

"  B'y,  the  town  is  yours!  Take  it  in.  Go 
where  ye  like;  do  with  it  what  ye  like.  And 
if  ye  run  up  against  trouble— ye  know,  the 

[276] 


WHAT  HE  IS  LIKE  HIMSELF 

b'ys  will  have  their  little  scrap  with  the  police— 
come  to  me  for  bail— any  crime!  any  crime!  " 

Say  not  that  the  freedom  of  the  city  by  the 
lake  has  not  been  conferred  upon  me.  It  has. 
Even  Mayor  Harrison  will  have  to  own  it. 

But  this  chapter  has  outrun  its  space,  and  I 
have  n't  yet  said  what  I  had  in  mind  concerning 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  I  will  drop  reminis- 
cences and  settle  right  down  to  it  now. 


[977] 


XII 
THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 


XII 
THE  DESPAIR  OF   POLITICIANS 

"W"  "W"  "T"E  had  been  summoned  to  the  White 
%/%/  House,  my  wife  and  I.  I  say, 
"  summoned  "  on  purpose,  because 
we  had  carefully  avoided  Washington;  it  was 
enough  for  us  to  know  that  he  was  there.  But 
he  would  not  have  it,  and  wrote  threateningly 
that  he  would  send  a  posse  if  we  did  n't  come. 
So  we  went.  I  do  not  think  I  ever  saw  a 
prouder  woman  than  my  wife  when  the 
President  took  her  in  to  dinner.  I  heard  her 
ask  him  if  her  smile  reached  from  ear  to  ear 
because  she  felt  like  it.  And  I  was  proud 
and  glad,  for  so  it  seemed  to  me  that  she  had 
at  last  come  to  her  rights,  and  I  where  there 
was  nothing  more  to  wish  for.  But  withal 
I  felt  a  bit  unhappy.  I  had  thought  to  do 
him  the  highest  honor  I  could  by  wearing  the 

[281] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

cross  King  Christian  gave  me,  but  it  turned  out 
that  among  the  dozen  diplomats  and  other 
guests  no  one  wore  any  decoration  save  my- 
self, and  I  did  n't  like  it.  The  President  saw, 
I  think,  that  I  was  troubled,  and  divined  the 
reason  in  the  way  he  has.  He  slipped  up  be- 
hind me,  at  the  first  chance,  and  said  in  my  ear : 
"  I  am  so  much  honored  and  touched  by  your 
putting  it  on  for  me."  So  he  knew,  and  it  was 
all  right.  The  others  might  stare. 

It  is  just  an  instance  .of  the  loyalty  that  is 
one  of  the  traits  in  the  man  which  bind  you  to 
him  with  hoops  of  steel  once  you  are  close  to 
him.  It  takes  no  account  of  condition  in  life : 
good  reason  why  his  Rough-Riders  worshiped 
the  ground  he  trod  on.  When  they  ate  bacon 
and  hard- tack,  that  was  his  fare;  and  if  there 
was  any  better  to  be  had,  they  shared  even.  It 
was  that  trait  that  came  out  in  him  the  night 
a  half-witted  farmer  drove  to  Sagamore  Hill 
on  purpose  to  shoot  him.  He  was  in  the  li- 
brary with  Mrs.  Roosevelt  when  the  voice  of 
the  fellow,  raised  in  angry  contention  with  the 
secret  service  guard  under  the  trees,  attracted 
his  attention.  He  knew  the  officer  was  alone, 
out  of  ear-shot  of  the  others  down  at  the  barn, 

[289] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

and  he  acted  at  once  upon  the  impulse  to  go  to 
his  aid.  Before  Mrs.  Roosevelt  could  put  in 
a  word  of  warning,  he  was  out  on  the  veranda 
in  the  moonlight,  his  white  shirt  bosom  making 
a  broad  target  for  the  frenzied  man  who  had 
a  cocked  pistol  in  the  buggy.  He  whipped  up 
his  horse  when  he  saw  the  President,  and  made 
straight  for  him,  but  before  he  had  gone  a  step 
the  secret  service  man  had  him  down  and  safe. 
I  joined  Mrs.  Roosevelt  the  next  day  in  de- 
manding the  President's  promise  that  he  would 
not  do  it  again,  and  he  gave  it  good-humoredly, 
insisting  that  he  had  been  in  no  danger.  "  But," 
said  he,  "  he  was  fighting  my  fight,  and  he  was 
alone.  Would  you  have  had  me  hide,  with 
him,  perhaps,  one  against  two  or  three? "  It 
was  a  hard  question  to  answer.  We  could 
only  remind  him  that  he  was  the  President, 
and  not  simply  Theodore  Roosevelt,  and  had 
the  whole  country  to  answer  to. 

I  think  I  never  knew  a  man  who  so  utterly 
trusts  a  friend,  once  he  has  taken  him  to  his 
heart.  That  he  does  not  do  easily  or  offhand; 
but  once  he  has  done  it,  there  is  no  reservation 
or  secret  drawback  to  his  friendship.  It  is  a 
splendid  testimony  to  the  real  worth  of  human 

[283] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

nature  that  his  trust  has  rarely  indeed  been  be- 
trayed. Once  his  friend,  you  are  his  friend 
forever.  To  the  infallible  test  he  rings  true: 
those  who  love  him  best  are  those  who  know 
him  best.  The  men  who  hate  him  are  the 
scalawags  and  the  self-seekers,  and  they  only 
distrust  him  who  do  not  know  him.  He  never 
lost  a  friend  once  made.  Albert  Shaw 
summed  it  all  up  in  a  half -impatient,  wholly  af- 
fectionate exclamation  when  he  was  telling  me 
of  a  visit  he  had  made  to  Washington  to  re- 
monstrate with  the  President. 

"  I  never  knew  a  man,"  he  said,  "  to  play  so 
into  the  hands  of  his  ememies.  He  has  no 
secrets  from  them;  he  cannot  bear  a  grudge; 
he  will  not  believe  evil ;  he  is  generous  and  fair 
to  everybody;  he  is  the  despair  of  his  friends. 
And,  after  all,  it  is  his  strength." 

And  the  reason  is  plain.  Had  I  not  known 
him,  I  would  have  found  it  long  ago  in  his  insis- 
tence that  the  America  of  to-day  is  better  than 
that  of  Washington  and  Jefferson.  A  man 
cannot  write  such  things  as  this  he  wrote  of 
Lincoln  without  meaning  every  word  of  it  and 
acting  it  out  in  his  life : 

"  The  old-school  Jeffersonian  theorists  be- 

[284] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

lieved  in  a  strong  people  and  a  weak  govern- 
ment. Lincoln  was  the  first  who  showed  how 
a  strong  people  might  have  a  strong  govern- 
ment and  yet  remain  the  freest  on  earth.  He 
seized,  half  unwittingly,  all  that  was  best  in  the 
traditions  of  Federalism.  He  was  the  true  suc- 
cessor of  the  Federal  leaders,  but  he  grafted  on 
their  system  a  profound  belief  that  the  great 
heart  of  the  nation  beats  for  truth,  honor,  and 
liberty." 

Now  do  you  wonder  that  he  is  the  despair- 
ing riddle  of  the  politicians  the  land  over,  the 
enemy,  wherever  they  meet,  of  all  the  after-us- 
the-deluge  plotters?  They  have  not  the  key 
to  the  man;  and  if  they  had,  they  would  not 
know  how  to  use  it.  The  key  is  his  faith  that 
the  world  is  growing  better  right  along.  In 
their  plan,  it  may  go  to  the  devil  when  they 
have  squeezed  it  for  what  there  is  in  it  for 
them.  They  can  never  comprehend  that  the 
man  who  believes  in  the  world  growing  better 
helps  make  it  better,  and  so,  in  the  end,  is 
bound  to  win ;  or  why  he  is  closer  to  the  people 
than  any  man  since  Lincoln's  day.  It  is  all  a 
mystery  and  a  nuisance  to  them,  and  I  am 
glad  it  is. 

[285] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Speaking-  of  Lincoln,  one  of  the  few  times  I 
have  seen  Roosevelt  visibly  hurt  was  when 
some  yellow  newspaper  circulated  the  story 
that  he  had  had  Lincoln's  portrait  taken  from 
the  wall  in  the  White  House  and  hung  in  the 
basement,  and  had  his  own  put  up  in  its  place. 
Ordinarily  he  takes  no  notice  of  attacks  of 
that  kind,  except  to  laugh  at  them  if  they  are 
funny;  but  this  both  hurt  and  saddened  him, 
for  Lincoln  is  his  hero  as  he  is  mine.  It  was 
at  the  time  the  White  House  was  undergoing 
alterations,  and  the  pictures  were  hung  in  the 
basement  to  preserve  them,  or  there  would  have 
been  no  pictures  by  this  time.  Some  of  the  old 
furniture  was  sent  away  and  sold  at  auction, 
as  it  had  to  be,  there  being  no  other  legal  way 
of  disposing  of  it.  Even  the  chairs  in  the 
cabinet-room  his  official  family  had  to  buy  at 
five  dollars  each,  when  they  wanted  them  as 
keepsakes.  Among  the  things  that  went  to  the 
auction-shop  was  a  sideboard  from  the  din- 
ing-room, and  promptly  the  report  was  circu- 
lated that  it  had  been  presented  by  the  tem- 
perance women  of  Ohio  to  Mrs.  Hayes,  and 
that  President  Roosevelt  had  sold  it  to  a 
saloon-keeper.  Resolutions  ,  began  to  come 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

from  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union 
branches  East  and  West  until  Secretary  Loeb 
published  the  facts,  which  were  these:  that  no 
sideboard  had  ever  been  presented  to  Mrs. 
Hayes,  but  an  ice-pitcher  with  stand,  long 
since  placed  in  a  Cincinnati  museum,  where 
it  now  is.  The  sideboard  was  a  piece  of  fur- 
niture bought  in  the  ordinary  avenues  of  trade 
during  President  Arthur's  term,  and  of  no 
account  on  any  ground.  But  long  after  the 
true  story  had  been  told  the  resolutions  kept 
coming;  for  all  I  know,  another  one  is  being 
prepared  now  in  some  place  which  the  lie  on  its 
travels  has  just  reached. 

I  know  what  it  was  that  hurt,  for  I  had  seen 
Roosevelt  recoil  from  the  offer  to  strike  an 
enemy  in  the  Police  Department  a  foul  blow, 
as  from  an  unclean  thing,  though  that  enemy 
never  fought  fair.  He  does.  "  I  never  look 
under  the  table  when  I  play,"  he  said,  when 
the  spoilsmen  beset  him  in  their  own  way  at 
Albany;  "  they  can  beat  me  at  that  game  every 
time.  Face  to  face,  I  can  defend  myself  and 
make  a  pretty  good  fight,  but  any  weakling  can 
murder  me.  Remember  this,  however,  that 
if  I  am  hit  that  way  very  often,  I  will  take  to 

[287] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  open,  and  the  blows  from  the  dark  will  only 
help  me  in  an  out-and-out  fight."  "  Clean  as  a 
hound's  tooth,"  one  of  his  favorite  phrases, 
fits  himself  best.  It  was  the  showing  that 
an  honest  man's  honest  intentions  were  not 
accepted  at  their  face  value  that  saddened  and 
hurt,  for  it  smudged  the  ideal  on  which  he 
builds  his  faith  in  his  fellow-man. 

It  was  only  yesterday  that  a  friend  told  me 
of  an  experience  he  had  at  Albany  while  Roose- 
velt was  Governor.  He  was  waiting  in  the  Ex- 
ecutive Chamber  with,  as  it  happened,  a  man 
of  much  account  in  national  politics,  a  Federal 
office-holder  occupying  a  position  second  to 
none  in  the  land  in  political  influence.  The 
gentleman  had  come  to  Albany  to  press  legis- 
lation for  good  roads,  being  interested  in  the 
manufacture  of  bicycles  or  automobiles,  I  for- 
get which.  While  they  waited,  in  came  the 
Governor.  There  were  but  two  other  persons 
in  the  room,  an  old  farmer  and  his  daughter, 
evidently  on  a  holiday.  They  were  looking  at 
the  pictures  with  much  interest.  Mr.  Roosevelt 
went  over  to  them  and  engaged  them  in  con- 
versation, found  out  where  they  were  from, 
said  he  was  glad  to  see  them,  and  pointed  out 

[288] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

one  or  two  of  the  portraits  especially  worth 
seeing.  Then  he  shook  hands  and  bade  them 
come  back  as  often  as  they  pleased.  It  was 
clear  that  they  did  not  know  who  the  friendly 
man  was.  When  they  went  out  he  came 
straight  across  to  the  Federal  official. 

"  Now,  Mr.  —  — ,"  he  said,  shaking  his  fin- 
ger at  him,  "  the  legislature  has  appropri- 
ated every  cent  it  is  going  to  this  year  for  good 
roads,  and  nothing  you  can  say  will  change 
their  minds  or  mine  on  that  subject.  So  you 
can  save  yourself  the  trouble.  It  is  no  use." 
And,  turning  to  my  friend,  "  Do  you  wish  to 
see  me  ?  "  But  his  amazement  was  so  great  that 
he  said  no,  making  up  his  mind  on  the  spot  to 
talk  to  the  Governor's  secretary.  The  official 
had  gone  away  at  once. 

I  recommend  this  anecdote  to  the  special  pe- 
rusal of  the  friends  who  think  Roosevelt  is 
playing  to  the  galleries  when  he  hails  the  plain 
man  cordially.  He  does  it  because  he  likes 
him.  They  might  have  seen  him  one  day  in 
an  elevated  car,  when  we  were  riding  together, 
get  up  to  give  his  seat  to  a  factory-girl  in  a 
worn  coat.  I  confess  that  I  itched  to  tell  her 
who  he  was,  but  he  let  me  have  no  chance. 

[289] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

We  were  talking  about  a  public  institution  I 
wished  to  see  reformed,  and  he  was  anxious 
to  know  if  there  was  any  way  in  which  he  could 
help.  "  If  there  is,"  he  said,  "  let  me."  But 
there  was  not,  and  I  was  sorry  for  it;  for  the 
matter  concerned  the  growing  youth  and  the 
citizenship  of  to-morrow,  and  I  knew  how  near 
his  heart  that  lay. 

I  have  been  rambling  along  on  my  own  plan 
of  putting  things  in  when  I  thought  of  them, 
and  I  cannot  say  that  I  feel  proud  of  the  re- 
sult; but  if  from  it  there  grows  a  person- 
ality whose  dominating  note  is  utter  simplicity, 
I  have  not  shot  so  wide  of  the  mark,  after  all. 
For  that  is  it.  All  he  does  and  says  is  to  be 
taken  with  that  understanding.  There  again 
is  \vhere  he  unconsciously  upsets  all  the  schemes 
and  plots  of  the  politicians.  They  don't  under- 
stand that  "  the  game  can  be  played  that 
way,"  and  are  forever  looking  for  some  ulterior 
motive,  some  hidden  trap  he  never  thought  of. 
Bismarck,  it  is  said,  used  to  confound  his  ene- 
mies by  plumping  out  the  truth  when,  accord- 
ing to  all  the  rulers  of  the  old-school  diplo- 
macy, he  should  have  lied,  and  he  bagged  them 
easily.  Roosevelt  has  one  fundamental  convic- 

[290] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

tion,  that  a  frank  and  honest  man  cannot  in  the 
long  run  be  entangled  by  plotters,  and  his  life 
is  proving  it  every  day.  To  say  that  the  world 
can  be  run  on  such  a  plan  is  merely  to  own  that 
the  best  there  is  in  it,  the  cynics  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding,  is  man  himself,  which  is  true 
and  also  comforting  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
trickery  contrived  to  disprove  it. 

It  was  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world,  when 
the  nation  was  justly  up  in  arms  about  the 
Kishineff  atrocity,  to  do  what  Roosevelt  did, 
and  that  was  why  he  did  it.  Friends  from  all 
over  wrote  to  me  to  warn  the  President  not  to 
get  into  trouble  with  Russia  by  mixing  up  in 
her  domestic  troubles.  Mischief  would  be  sure 
to  come  of  it.  The  Czar  would  n't  receive  the 
Jews'  petition,  in  the  first  place,  and  we  would 
have  to  take  a  rebuke  if  we  tried  to  send  it. 
But  the  President  did  not  need  my  advice  or 
theirs.  I  laughed  when  I  read  in  the  paper 
how  he  cut  that  Gordian  knot  that  was  so  full  of 
evil  omen:  merely  telegraphed  the  whole  peti- 
tion to  the  American  minister  in  St.  Peters- 
burg, with  orders  to  lay  it  before  the  Czar  and 
ask  whether  he  would  receive  it  if  transmitted 
in  the  usual  way.  To  which  the  Czar  returned 

[291] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

a  polite  answer,  as  he  was  in  duty  bound,  that 
he  would  not;  but  he  had  received  it,  all  of  it, 
and  the  results  were  not  long  in  showing  them- 
selves.1 For  days  the  cables  had  groaned  under 
guarded  threats  of  what  would  happen  if  we 
tried  to  send  the  petition  over,  and  that  was 
what  happened ! 

Perhaps  it  is  in  a  measure  this  very  unex- 
pectedness— more  pity  that  it  is  unexpected — 
of  method  that  is  no  method,  but  just  common 
honesty,  that  has  got  abroad  among  people 
the  notion  that  he  is  a  man  of  impulse,  not 
of  deliberate,  thoughtful  action.  More  of  it, 
probably,  is  due  to  his  quick  energy  that  sizes 
things  up  with  marvelous  speed  and  accuracy. 
In  any  event,  it  is  an  error  which  any  one  can 
make  out  for  himself,  if  he  will  merely  watch 
attentively  what  is  going  on,  and  what  has  been 
going  on  since  Roosevelt  came  prominently 
into  the  public  eye.  What  position  did  he  ever 
take  hastily  that  had  to  be  abandoned,  ready 
as  he  would  have  been  to  quit  it  had  he  been 
shown  that  he  was  wrong?  He  shut  the  saloons 
as  Police  Commissioner,  since  the  law  he  had 

1  What  they  will  amount  to  or  how  long  they  will  last  is  another 
matter.     The  Muscovite  is  a  slippery  customer. 
[092] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

sworn  to  enforce  demanded  it.  And  though 
politicians  claimed  that  he  alienated  support 
from  the  administration  he  stood  for,  he  taught 
us  a  lesson  in  civic  honesty  that  will  yet  bear 
fruit;  for  while  politics  are  allowed  to  play 
hide-and-seek  with  the  majesty  of  the  law,, 
that  majesty  is  a  fraud  and  politics  will  be  un- 
clean. As  Health  Commissioner  he  gave  the 
push  to  the  campaign  against  the  old  murder- 
ous rookeries  that  broke  the  slum  landlord's 
back;  abuse  and  threats  were  his  reward,  but 
hope  came  into  the  lives  of  two  million  souls 
in  my  city,  and  all  over  the  land  those  who 
would  help  their  fellow-men  took  heart  of  hope 
because  of  what  he  did.  He  offended  a  thou- 
sand spoilsmen  as  Civil  Service  Commissioner, 
and  earned  the  gratitude  and  confidence  of  a 
Democratic  President;  but  who  now  who  has 
sense  would  have  had  him  do  otherwise? 

He  compelled  the  corporations  to  pay  just 
taxes,  and  though  they  swore  to  knife  him 
for  it,  the  Court  of  Appeals  has  said  it  was  fair 
and  just.  I  have  heard  some  people  blaming 
him  hotly  for  interfering  in  the  anthracite  coal 
strike.  Their  cellars  were  full  of  coal  that 
winter,  but  their  factory  bunkers  were  not; 

[293] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

and,  singularly,  I  remember  some  of  those  very 
men,  when  their  pocket-books  were  threatened, 
predicting  angrily  that  "  something  would 
happen  "  if  things  were  not  mended.  And  in 
that  they  were  right;  something  would  have 
happened.  Perhaps  that  was  a  reason  why 
he  interfered.  However,  I  shall  come  back  to 
that  yet.  But  where  is  there  to-day  a  cloud  on 
the  diplomatic  horizon  because  of  the  "  impul- 
siveness "  of  the  young  man  in  the  White 
House?  When  were  there  so  cordial  relations 
with  the  powers  before — with  England,  with 
France,  with  Germany  that  sends  the  Presi- 
dent's personal  friend  to  represent  her  here? 
Does  any  one  imagine  William  of  Germany 
seeks  personal  advantage  in  that?  Then  he 
is  not  as  smart  as  the  emperor.  For  the  first 
time  in  the  memory  of  diplomats,  I  imagine, 
they  are  able  to  discuss  things,  up  at  the  White 
House,  just  as  they  are;  yet  they  don't  take  a 
trick,  and  they  know  it. 

Roosevelt  is  as  far  as  possible  from  being 
rash.  When  people  say  it  I  am  always  re- 
minded of  the  difference  between  the  Danish 
word  rask  and  the  English  rash.  Rask  means 
quick,  resolute.  That  is  what  he  is.  He  ar- 
[JM] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

rives  at  a  conclusion  more  quickly  than  any  one 
I  ever  knew;  but  he  never  jumps  at  it.  He 
has  learned  how  to  use  his  mind,  and  all  of  it, 
that  is  why.  "  I  own,"  writes  a  friend  to  me 
from  Ohio,  "  that  he  has  been  right  so  far 
every  time.  But  next  time  where  will  we  find 
him?  "  Learn  to  think  a  thing  out,  as  he  does; 
and  when  you  have  done  it,  ask  yourself, 
"  Which,  now,  is  right?  "  and  you  will  know. 
Watch  and  you  will  see  that  the  real  difference 
between  his  critics  and  him  is  this:  they  chase 
all  round  the  compass  for  some  portent  of 
trouble  "  if  they  do  this  or  do  that,"  and  in 
the  end  throw  themselves  headlong  on  some 
course  that  promises  safety;  whereas,  he  goes 
calmly  ahead,  seeking  the  right  and  letting 
troubles  take  care  of  themselves  if  they  must 
come.  That  is  the  quality  of  his  courage  which 
some  good  people  identify  as  a  kind  of  fight- 
ing spunk  that  must  be  in  a  broil  at  regular 
intervals.  I  do  not  suppose  there  is  a  less  emo- 
tional man  in  existence  than  Secretary  Root 
of  the  War  Department.  He  was  the  only  one, 
the  newspapers  said,  in  the  cabinet  who  would 
not  give  five  dollars  for  his  chair  as  a  souvenir. 
He  could  put  the  money  to  better  use,  and  he 

[295] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

did  n't  need  the  chair.  But  when  he  came  to 
take  leave  of  Roosevelt,  this  is  what  he  wrote : 
"  I  shall  carry  with  me  unabated  loyalty  to 
your  administration,  confidence  in  the  sound 
conservatism  and  patriotic  unselfishness  of 
your  policy,  .  .  .  and  I  shall  always  be  happy 
to  have  been  a  part  of  the  administration 
directed  by  your  sincere  and  rugged  adhe- 
rence to  right  and  devotion  to  the  trust  of 
our  country."  Blame  me  for  partiality,  if 
you  will,  but  against  Secretary  Root  the 
charge  does  not  justly  lie.  He  just  spoke  the 
truth. 

Verily,  I  think  that  were  the  country  to  be 
called  upon  to-morrow  to  vote  for  peace  or  for 
war,  his  voice  would  be  for  peace  to  the  last 
hour  in  which  it  could  be  maintained  with 
honor.  Slower  than  Lincoln  would  he  be  to 
draw  the  sword.  But  once  drawn  for  justice 
and  right,  I  should  not  like  to  be  in  its  way, 
nor  should  I  be  lazy  about  making  up  my  mind 
which  way  to  skip.  I  remember  once  when  I 
got  excited — over  some  outrage  perpetrated 
upon  American  missions  or  students  in  Turkey, 
I  think.  It  was  in  the  old  days  in  Mulberry 
Street,  and  I  wanted  to  know  if  our  ships 

[  296  ] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

could  not  run  the  Dardanelles  and  beard  the 
Turk  in  his  capital. 

"  Ah,"  put  in  Colonel  Grant,  who  was  in  the 
Police  Board,  "  but  those  forts  have  guns." 

"  Guns!  "  said  Roosevelt;  nothing  more.  It 
is  impossible  to  describe  the  emphasis  he  put 
upon  the  word.  But  in  it  I  seemed  to  hear  De- 
catur  at  Tripoli,  Farragut  at  Mobile.  Guns! 
The  year  after  that  he  was  busy  piling  up 
ammunition  at  Hongkong.  They  had  guns 
at  Manila,  too.  And  Dewey  joined  Decatur 
and  Farragut  on  the  record. 

I  said  Roosevelt  had  learned  to  use  all  of  his 
mind.  To  an  extraordinary  degree  he  pos- 
sesses the  faculty  of  concentrating  it  upon  the 
subject  in  hand  and,  when  it  has  been  disposed 
of,  transferring  it  at  will  to  the  thing  next  in 
order,  else  he  could  not  have  written  important 
historical  works  while  he  was  Police  Com- 
missioner and  Governor.  Whether  this  is  all 
the  result  of  training,  or  a  faculty  born  in  him, 
I  do  not  know.  Napoleon  had  the  same  gift. 
I  have  sat  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  his  room  at 
Police  Headquarters  and  seen  him  finish  his 
correspondence,  dispose  of  routine  matters  in 
hand,  and  at  once  take  up  dictation  of  some 

[297] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

magazine  article,  or  a  chapter  in  one  of  his 
books  where  he  left  off  the  day  before.  In  five 
minutes  he  would  be  deep  in  the  feudal  days, 
or  disentangling  some  Revolutionary  kink  in 
Washington's  time,  and  seemingly  had  lost  all 
recollection  of  Mulberry  Street  and  its  con- 
cerns. In  the  midst  of  it  there  would  come  a 
rap  at  the  door  and  a  police  official  would  enter 
with  some  problem  to  be  solved.  Roosevelt 
would  stop  in  the  doorway,  run  rapidly  over  it 
with  him,  decide  it,  unless  it  needed  action  by 
the  Board,  and  after  one  nervous  turn  across 
the  floor  would  resume  dictating  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  sentence  where  he  had  stopped.  I 
used  to  listen  in  amazement.  It  would  have 
taken  me  hours  of  fretting  to  get  back  to  where 
I  was. 

One  secret  laugh  I  had  at  him  in  those  days. 
The  room  was  a  big  square  one,  with  windows 
that  had  blue  shades.  When  he  got  thoroughly 
into  his  dictation— during  which  he  never  per- 
mitted me  to  leave;  he  would  stay  any  move- 
ment of  mine  that  way  with  a  detaining  ges- 
ture, and  go  right  on — he  made,  unconsciously, 
a  three-fourths  round  of  the  office,  and  when 
he  passed  each  window  would  seize  the  shade- 

[398] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

cord  and  give  a  little  abstracted  pull,  bringing 
it  down  an  inch  or  so,  until  by  degrees  the  room 
was  in  twilight.  By  the  fourth  or  fifth  round 
he  would  acquire  a  game  leg.  One  of  his 
knees  stiffened,  and  thereafter  he  would  drag 
around  with  him  a  disabled  limb  to  the  end 
of  the  chapter,  when  he  as  suddenly  recovered 
the  use  of  it.  I  sometimes  wonder  if  his  game 
leg  takes  part  in  cabinet  discussions.  If  it 
does,  I  will  warrant  the  country  will  know  of 
it,  though  it  may  not  be  able  to  identify  the 
ailment.  I  give  it  as  a  hint  to  nations  that  may 
be  meditating  provocation  of  Uncle  Sam.  I 
should  beware  of  provoking  the  President's 
game  leg. 

Which  reminds  me  of  the  time  we  plotted 
against  him  in  Mulberry  Street,  putting  in 
quarters  at  a  raffle  at  an  Italian  feast.  The 
raffle  was  for  a  sheep  which  we  hoped  to  win, 
and  to  lead  to  Headquarters  in  procession, 
headed  by  the  Italian  band.  We  even  took  Mr. 
Roosevelt  around  and  made  him  spend  five 
quarters  in  his  own  prospective  undoing.  But 
we  did  n't  win  the  sheep.  It  was  the  Widow 
Motso  on  the  third  floor  back  who  did;  and 
when  I  heard  her  rapturous  cry,  and  saw  her 

[299] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

hug  the  sheep  then  and  there,  and  kiss  its  black 
nose,  I  was  glad  the  plot  miscarried.  The 
widow  killed  the  sheep  the  next  day.  Roose- 
velt never  knew  what  he  had  escaped.  It  was 
all  my  way  of  paying  him  for  calling  sheep 
"  woolly  idiots,"  whereas  they  are  my  special 
pets.  There  is  no  animal  I  like  so  much  as  a 
sheep.  It  is  so  absolutely,  comfortably  stupid. 
You  don't  have  to  put  sense  into  it,  because 
you  can't. 

I  am  tempted  to  tell  you  of  more  jokes,  for 
he  loves  one  dearly  so  long  as  it  hurts  no  one's 
feelings.  Two  timid  parsons  found  that  out 
who  saw  Mr.  Gilder  shake  hands  with  him  at 
a  reception  and  express  the  hope  that  "  he 
would  not  embroil  us  in  any  foreign  war." 

"  What,"  cried  the  President,  "  a  war?  with 
me  cooped  up  here  in  the  White  House! 
Never,  gentlemen,  never!  "  I  wonder  what  the 
parsons  thought  when  they  caught  their  breath. 
Perhaps  the  man  I  met  on  a  railroad  train  and 
told  the  story  to,  expressed  it.  "  There,  you 
see,"  said  he ;  "he  says  it  himself.  If  he  could 
get  away  he  would  start  a  fight."  His  fun 
sometimes  takes  the  form  of  mock  severity  with 
intimate  friends.  In  the  swarm  of  officials  that 

[300] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

came  to  wish  the  President  a  happy  New  Year 
were  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners,  headed 
by  John  R.  Procter,  his  old  colleague,  all  men 
after  his  own  heart.  Mr.  Procter  still  laughed 
at  the  recollection  of  that  New  Year's  greet- 
ing when  I  saw  him  last.1  The  President 
drew  himself  up  at  their  approach  and  re- 
marked with  stiff  dignity,  loud  enough  for  all 
to  hear : 

"  The  moral  tone  of  the  room  is  distinctly 
lowered." 

No  one  need  ever  have  any  fear  that  Roose- 
velt will  get  the  country  into  an  undignified 
position.  If  unfamiliarity  with  a  situation 
should  lead  him  off  the  track,  take  my  word  for 
it  he  will  take  the  straight,  common-sense  way 
out,  and  get  there.  The  man  who  in  his  youth 
could  describe  Tammany  as  "  a  highly  organ- 
ized system  of  corruption  tempered  with  ma- 
levolent charity,"  and  characterize  a  mutual  ac- 
quaintance, a  man  with  cold  political  ambitions 
whom  I  deemed  devoid  of  sentiment,  as  having 
both,  but  "  keeping  them  in  different  com- 

1  Poor  friend!  As  the  printer  brings  me  the  proof  of  this,  I 
hear  of  his  death.  There  was  never  a  more  loyal  heart,  a  more 
dauntless  soul  than  his.  The  world  is  poorer,  indeed,  for  his 
going  from  us. 

[301] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

partments,"  can  be  trusted  to  find  a  way  out  of 
any  dilemma. 

If  he  got  into  one,  that  is  to  say.  I  know  him 
well  enough  to  be  perfectly  easy  on  that  score. 
It  seems  to  me  that  all  the  years  I  have  watched 
him  he  has  tackled  problems  that  were  new  and 
strange  to  him,  with  such  simple  common  sense 
that  the  difficulties  have  vanished  before  you 
could  make  them  out;  and  the  more  difficult 
the  problem  the  plainer  his  treatment  of  it. 
We  were  speaking  about  the  Northern  Secu- 
rities suits  one  day. 

"  I  do  not  claim  to  be  a  financial  expert,"  he 
said;  "  but  it  does  not  take  a  financial  expert 
to  tell  that,  the  law  being  that  two  small  men 
shall  not  combine  to  the  public  injury,  if  I  al- 
low two  big  men  to  do  it  I  am  setting  up  that 
worst  of  stumbling-blocks  in  a  country  like 
ours,  which  persuades  the  poor  man  that  if 
he  has  money  enough  the  law  will  not  apply 
to  him.  That  is  elementary  and  needs  no  train- 
ing a  financier.  So  in  this  matter  of  pub- 
licity of  trust  accounts.  Publicity  hurts  no 
honest  business,  and  is  not  feared  by  the  man 
of  straight  methods.  The  man  whose  methods 
are  crooked  is  the  man  whose  game  I  would 

[302] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF   POLITICIANS 

block.  Those  who  complain  know  this  per- 
fectly well,  and  their  complaining  betrays 
them.  Again,  with  honest  money — I  did  not 
need  any  financier  to  tell  me  that  a  short-weight 
dollar  is  not  an  honest  dollar  to  pay  full- 
weight  dollar  debts  with." 

I  thought  of  the  wise  newspaper  editors  who 
had  been  at  such  pains  to  explain  to  us  how 
Roosevelt  was  responsible  for  the  "  unsettled 
condition  "  of  Wall  Street.  Their  house  of 
cards,  built  up  with  such  toilsome  arguing, 
was  just  then  falling  to  pieces,  and  the  news 
columns  in  their  own  papers  were  giving  us  an 
inside  view  of  what  it  was  that  had  been  going 
on  in  the  financial  market,  and  why  some  se- 
curities remained  "  undigested."  Water  and 
wind  are  notoriously  a  bad  diet ;  and  what  else 
to  call  the  capitalization  of  a  concern  at  thirty 
millions  that  rated  itself  at  five,  would  puzzle, 
I  imagine,  even  a  "  financial  expert." 

And  has  he  then  no  faults,  this  hero  of  mine? 
Yes,  he  has,  and  I  am  glad  of  it,  for  I  want 
a  live  man  for  a  friend,  not  a  dead  saint — they 
are  the  only  ones,  I  notice,  who  have  no  faults. 
He  talks,  they  say,  and  I  hope  he  will  keep 
on,  for  he  has  that  to  say  which  the  world  needs 

[303] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  hear  and  cannot  hear  too  long  or  too  often. 
I  don't  think  that  he  could  keep  a  scrap-book, 
if  he  tried.  I  am  sure  he  could  not.  It  is  not 
given  to  man  once  in  a  thousand  years  to  make 
and  to  record  history  at  the  same  time.  But 
then  it  is  not  his  business  to  keep  scrap-books. 
I  know  he  cannot  dance,  for  I  have  seen  a 
letter  from  a  lady  who  reminded  him  of  how 
he  "  trod  strenuously  "  on  her  toes  in  the  old 
dancing-school  days  when  the  world  was 
young.  And  I  have  heard  him  sing — that  he 
cannot  do.  The  children  think  it  perfectly 
lovely,  but  he  would  never  pass  for  an  artist. 
And  when  the  recruit  in  camp  accosted  him 
with  "  Say,  are  you  the  Lieutenant-Colonel? 
The  Colonel  is  looking  for  you,"  he  did  not 
order  him  under  arrest  or  jab  him  with  his 
sword,  but  merely  told  him  to  "  Come  with  me 
and  see  how  I  do  it  " ;  which  was  quite  irregu- 
lar, of  course,  if  it  did  make  a  soldier  out  of 
a  raw  recruit.  Oh,  yes!  I  suppose  he  has  his 
faults,  though  all  these  years  I  have  been  so 
busy  finding  out  good  things  in  him  that  were 
new  to  me,  that  I  have  never  had  time  to  look 
for  them.  But  when  I  think  of  him,  gentle, 
loyal,  trusting  friend,  helpful,  unselfish  ever, 

[304] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

champion  of  all  that  is  good  and  noble  and 
honest ;  when  I  read  in  an  old  letter  that  strays 
into  my  hands  his  brave,  patient  words:  "  We 
have  got  to  march  and  fight  for  the  right  as 
we  see  it,  and  face  defeat  and  victory  just  as 

they  come  " ;  and  in  another :  "As  for  what 

say  of  my  standing  alone,  why,  I  will  if  I  must, 
but  no  one  is  more  heartened  by  such  support 
as  you  give  than  I  am  " — why,  I  feel  that  if 
that  is  the  one  thing  I  can  do,  I  will  do  that; 
that,  just  as  he  is,  with  or  without  faults,  I 
would  rather  stand  with  him  and  be  counted 
than  anywhere  else  on  God's  green  earth.  For, 
standing  so,  I  know  that  I  shall  count  always 
for  our  beloved  country,  which  his  example  and 
his  friendship  have  taught  me  to  love  beyond 
my  own  native  land.  And  that  is  what  I  would 
do  till  I  die. 

There  is  yet  one  side  of  Theodore  Roosevelt 
upon  which  I  would  touch,  because  I  know 
the  question  to  be  on  many  lips ;  though  I  ap- 
proach it  with  some  hesitation.  For  a  man's 
religious  beliefs  are  his  own,  and  he  is  not  one 
to  speak  lightly  of  what  is  in  his  heart  con- 
cerning the  hope  of  heaven.  But  though  he  is 
of  few  public  professions,  yet  is  he  a  reverent 

[305] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

man,  of  practice,  in  private  and  public,  ever  in 
accord  with  the  highest  ideals  of  Christian 
manliness.  His  is  a  militant  faith,  bound  on 
the  mission  of  helping  the  world  ahead;  and 
in  that  campaign  he  welcomes  gladly  whoever 
would  help.  For  the  man  who  is  out  merely 
to  purchase  for  himself  a  seat  in  heaven,  what- 
ever befall  his  brother,  he  has  nothing  but  con- 
tempt ;  for  him  who  struggles  painfully  toward 
the  light,  a  helping  hand  and  a  word  of  cheer 
always.  With  forms  of  every  kind  he  has  tol- 
erant patience— for  what  they  mean.  For  the 
mere  husk  emptied  of  all  meaning  he  has  little 
regard.  The  soul  of  a  thing  is  to  him  the  use  it 
is  of.  Speaking  of  the  circuit-riders  of  old,  he 
said  once :  "  It  is  such  missionary  work  that 
prevents  the  pioneers  from  sinking  perilously 
near  the  level  of  the  savagery  against  which 
they  contend.  Without  it,  the  conquest  of  this 
continent  would  have  had  little  but  an  ani- 
mal side.  Because  of  it,  deep  beneath  and 
through  the  national  character  there  runs  that 
power  of  firm  adherence  to  a  lofty  ideal  upon 
which  the  safety  of  the  nation  will  ultimately 
depend." 

He  himself  declared  his  faith  in  the  closing 

[306] 


THE  DESPAIR  OF  POLITICIANS 

words  of  his  address  to  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  in  New  York  City  the 
night  before  he  surrendered  his  stewardship 
as  Governor  into  the  hands  of  the  people; 
and  so  let  him  stand  before  his  countrymen 
and  before  the  world : 

"  The  true  Christian  is  the  true  citizen,  lofty 
of  purpose,  resolute  in  endeavor,  ready  for  a 
hero's  deeds,  but  never  looking  down  on  his 
task  because  it  is  cast  in  the  day  of  small 
things;  scornful  of  baseness,  awake  to  his  own 
duties  as  well  as  to  his  rights,  following  the 
higher  law  with  reverence,  and  in  this  world 
doing  all  that  in  him  lies,  so  that  when  death 
comes  he  may  feel  that  mankind  is  in  some 
degree  better  because  he  has  lived." 


[30T] 


XIII 
AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 


XIII 
AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

THE  Sylph  had  weighed  anchor  and  was 
standing  out  for  the  open,  sped  on  her 
way  by  a  small  gale  that  blew  out  of  a 
bank  of  black  cloud  in  the  southeast.  The  sail- 
ors looked  often  and  hard  over  the  rail  at  the 
gathering  gloom,  the  white-caps  in  the  Sound, 
and  the  scudding  drift  overhead,  prophesying 
trouble.  A  West  Indian  cyclone  that  had  de- 
stroyed the  crops  in  Jamaica  and  strewn  our 
coast  with  wrecks  had  been  lost  for  two  days. 
It  looked  very  much  as  if  the  Sylph,  carrying 
the  President  from  Oyster  Bay  to  New  York, 
had  found  it.  And,  indeed,  before  we  reached 
the  forts  that  guard  the  approach  to  the  city, 
a  furious  hurricane  churned  the  waters  of  the 
Sound  and  of  the  clouds  into  a  maddening 
whirl  in  which  it  seemed  as  if  so  small  a  ship 

[311] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

could  never  live.  A  tug  went  down  within  hail ; 
but  only  the  sailors  knew  it.  The  passengers 
had  been  cleared  from  the  deck,  that  the  Sylph 
might  be  stripped  of  its  awnings  and  every  rag 
of  canvas  which  might  help  throw  it  over  if  the 
worst  happened.  We  went  gladly  enough,  for 
the  deck  had  ceased  to  be  a  comfortable  or  even 
a  safe  place, — all  except  the  President,  who  had 
fallen  out  of  the  general  conversation  and  into 
a  corner  by  himself,  with  a  book.  A  sailor  con- 
fronted him  with  an  open  knife  in  his  hand. 

"  Mr.  President,"  he  said,  "  orders  are  to  cut 
away  " ;  and  without  any  more  ado  he  slashed  at 
the  awning  overhead,  cutting  its  fastenings. 
The  President  woke  up  and  retreated.  Fol- 
lowing him  down  into  the  cabin,  I  came  upon 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  placidly  winding  yarn  from  the 
hands  of  the  only  other  woman  passenger. 
They  were  both  as  calm  as  though  Government 
tugs  were  not  chasing  up  the  river  as  hard  as 
they  could  go  to  the  rescue  of  our  boat,  sup- 
posed to  be  in  peril  of  shipwreck. 

But  at  the  moment  I  am  thinking  of,  the  hur- 
ricane was  as  yet  only  a  smart  blow.  We  were 
steaming  out  past  Centre  Island,  under  the 
rugged  shore  where  Sagamore  Hill  lay  hid 

1312] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

among  the  foliage.  The  President  stood  at  the 
rail  surveying  the  scenes  he  loves.  Here  he 
had  played  as  a  boy,  and  dreamed  a  boy's 
dreams;  here  he  had  grown  to  manhood;  here 
his  children  were  growing  up  around  him, 
happy  and  healthy  boys  and  girls.  We  passed 
a  sandy  bluff  sloping  sheer  into  the  Sound 
from  under  its  crown  of  trees. 

"  See,"  he  said,  pointing  to  it.  "  Cooper's 
Bluff!  Three  generations  of  Roosevelts  have 
raced  down  its  slope.  We  did,  only  yesterday. 
Good  run,  that!" 

And  as  the  Sylph  swept  by  I  made  out  three 
lines  .of  track,  hugging  each  other  close, — a 
man's  long,  sturdy  stride  and  the  smaller  feet 
of  Archie  and  Kermit  racing  their  father  down- 
hill. Half-way  down  they  had  slipped  and 
slid,  scooping  up  the  sand  in  great  furrows.  I 
could  almost  hear  their  shouts  and  laughter 
ringing  yet  in  the  woods. 

Sagamore  Hill  is  the  family  sanctuary,  whi- 
ther they  come  back  in  June  with  one  long 
sigh  of  relief  that  their  holiday  is  in  sight,  in 
which  they  may  have  one  another.  No  longer  to 
themselves,  it  is  true.  The  President  is  not 
permitted  to  be  alone  even  in  his  own  home. 

[313] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

But  still  they  have  days  of  seclusion,  and 
nights, — that  greatest  night  in  the  year,  when 
the  President  goes  camping  with  the  boys. 
How  much  it  all  meant  to  him  I  never  fully 
realized  till  last  Election  day,  when  I  went 
with  him  home  to  vote.  The  sun  shone  so 
bright  and  warm,  when  he  came  out  from 
among  his  old  neighbors,  who  crowded  around 
to  shake  hands,  that  a  longing  came  over  him 
for  the  old  place,  and  we  drove  out  to  Saga- 
more Hill  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  it  in  its  Indian- 
summer  glory.  Four  dogs  came  bounding  out 
with  joyous  barks  and  leaped  upon  him,  and  he 
caressed  them  and  called  them  by  name,  each 
and  every  one,  while  they  whined  with  delight, 
"  Sailor-boy "  happiest  of  the  lot,  a  big, 
clumsy,  but  loyal  fellow,  "  of  several  good 
breeds,"  said  the  President,  whimsically.  They 
followed  him  around  as  he  went  from  tree  to 
tree,  and  from  shrub  to  shrub,  visiting  with  each 
one,  admiring  the  leaf  of  this  and  the  bark  of 
that,  as  if  they  were  personal  friends.  And  so 
they  were ;  for  he  planted  them  all.  Seeing  him 
with  them,  I  grasped  the  real  meaning  of  the 
family  motto,  Qui  plantavit  curabit,  that  stands 
carved  in  the  beam  over  the  door  looking  north 

[314] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

toward  the  hill  with  the  cedars,  where  the  soil  is 
warm  and  full  of  white  pebbles,  and  it  is  nice  to 
lie  in  the  grass  when  strawberries  are  ripe. 

Roses  were  blooming  still,  and  heliotrope 
and  sweet  alyssum,  in  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  garden, 
and  down  at  the  foot  of  the  long  lawn  a  wild 
vine  crept  caressingly  over  the  stone  that 
marks  the  resting-place  of  the  children's  pets. 
"  Faithful  Friends  "  is  hewn  in  its  rough  face, 
with  the  names  of  "  Susie,"  "  Jessie,"  and 
"  Boz."  How  many  rabbits,  rats,  and  guinea- 
pigs  keep  them  company  in  their  ghostly  revels 
I  shall  not  say.  No  one  knows  unless  it  be 
Kermit,  who  has  his  own  ways  and  insists  upon 
decent  but  secret  burial  as  among  the  inalien- 
able rights  of  defunct  pets.  It  was  his  discov- 
ery, one  day  in  the  White  House,  that  a  rabbit 
belonging  to  Archie  lay  unburied  in  the  garden 
a  whole  day  after  its  demise,  which  brought 
about  a  court-martial  in  the  nursery.  Ted,  the 
oldest  brother,  was  Judge-Advocate-General, 
and  his  judgment  was  worthy  of  a  Solomon. 

"  It  was  Archie's  rabbit,"  he  said  gravely, 
when  all  the  evidence  was  in,  "  and  it  is  Archie's 
funeral.  Let  him  have  it  in  peace.". 

Poor  "  Susie  " — ill  named,  for  "  she  "  was  a 

[315] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

he — came  nearer  to  provoking  irreverence  in 
me,  by  making  me  laugh  in  church,  than  any- 
thing that  has  happened  since  I  was  a  boy.  I 
had  come  out  on  a  Sunday,  and  finding  the 
President's  carriage  at  the  church,  went  in  to 
join  in  the  worship  while  waiting  for  him. 
"  Susie  "  lay  in  the  vestibule,  and  at  sight  of 
me  manifested  his  approval  by  pounding  the 
floor  with  his  club  tail  until  the  sound  of  it  re- 
verberated through  the  building  like  rolling 
thunder.  The  door  opened,  and  a  pale  young 
man  came  out  to  locate  the  source  of  the  dis- 
turbance. Discovering  it  in  "  Susie's  "  tail,  he 
grabbed  him  by  the  hind  legs  and  dragged  him 
around  so  that  the  blows  might  fall  on  the  soft 
door-mat.  But  "  Susie,"  pleased  with  the  ex- 
tra attention  paid  him,  hammered  harder  than 
ever,  and  in  his  delight  stretched  himself  so  far 
that  his  tail  still  struck  the  hollow  floor.  I  was 
convulsed  with  laughter,  but  never  a  smile 
crossed  the  countenance  of  the  proper  young 
man.  He  studied  "  Susie  "  thoughtfully,  made 
a  mental  diagram  of  his  case,  then  took  a  fresh 
hold  and  dragged  him  around,  this  time  to  a 
safe  harbor,  where  he  might  wag  as  he  would 
without  breaking  the  Sabbath  peace.  I  am 

[316] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

glad  I  sat  five  seats  behind  Mr.  Roosevelt  dur- 
ing the  rest  of  the  service,  and  that  he  knew 
nothing  of  "  Susie's"  doings;  for  if  he  had 
turned  his  head  and  given  me  as  much  as  one 
look,  I  should  have  broken  right  out  laughing 
and  made  a  scandal. 

When  we  drove  back  to  the  village  that  No- 
vember day  I  caught  him  looking  back  once  or 
twice  toward  the  house  in  its  bower  of  crimson 
shrubs,  and  I  saw  that  his  heart  was  there.  You 
would  not  wonder  if  you  knew  it.  I  never  go 
away  from  Sagamore  Hill  without  a  feeling 
that  if  I  lived  there  I  would  never  leave  it,  and 
that  nothing  would  tempt  me  to  exchange  it  for 
the  White  House,  with  all  it  stands  for.  But 
then  I  am  ten  years  older  than  Theodore  Roose- 
velt; though  it  isn't  always  the  years  that  count. 
For  I  think  if  it  came  to  a  vote,  the  children 
would  carry  my  proposition  with  a  shout.  Not 
that  Sagamore  Hill  has  anything  to  suggest 
a  palace.  Quite  the  contrary:  it  is  a  very 
modest  home  for  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  On  a  breezy  hilltop  overlooking  field 
and  forest  and  Sound,  with  the  Connecticut 
shore  on  the  northern  horizon,  its  situation  is 
altogether  taking.  The  house  is  comfortable, 

[317] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

filled  with  reminders  of  the  stirring  life  its 
owner  has  led  in  camp  and  on  the  hunting-trail, 
and  with  a  broad  piazza  on  the  side  that  catches 
the  cool  winds  of  summer.  But  it  is  homelike 
rather  than  imposing.  It  is  the  people  them- 
selves who  put  the  stamp  upon  it, — the  life  they 
live  there  together. 

Truly,  together.  The  President  is  boy  with 
his  boys  there.  He  puts  off  the  cares  of  state 
and  takes  a  hand  in  their  games;  and  if  they 
lagged  before,  they  do  not  lag  then.  It  is  he 
who  sets  Josiah,  the  badger,  free,  and  bids  all 
hands  skip,  and  skip  lively;  for  Josiah's  one 
conscious  aim,  when  out  of  his  cage,  appears  to 
be  to  nip  a  leg, — any  leg,  even  a  Presidential 
leg,  within  reach, — and  he  makes  for  them  all 
successively  in  his  funny,  preoccupied  way.  Jo- 
siah, then  a  very  small  baby  badger,  was  heaved 
on  board  the  Presidential  train  out  in  Kansas 
last  year,  by  a  little  girl  who  shouted  his  name 
after  the  train,  and  was  brought  up  on  a  nurs- 
ing-bottle till  he  cut  his  teeth.  Since  then  he  has 
been  quite  able  to  shift  for  himself.  At  pres- 
ent he  looks  more  like  a  small,  flat  mattress, 
with  a  leg  under  each  corner,  than  anything 
else.  That  is  the  President's  description  of 

[318] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

him,  and  it  is  a  very  good  one.  I  wish  I  could 
have  shown  you  him  one  morning  last  summer 
when,  having  vainly  chased  the  President  and 
all  the  children,  he  laid  siege  to  Archie  in  his 
hammock.  Archie  was  barelegged  and  pru- 
dently stayed  where  he  was,  but  the  hammock 
hung  within  a  few  inches  of  the  grass.  Josiah 
promptly  made  out  a  strategic  advantage  there, 
and  went  for  the  lowest  point  of  it  with  snap- 
ping jaws.  Archie's  efforts  to  shift  continu- 
ously his  center  of  gravity  while  watching  his 
chance  to  grab  the  badger  by  its  defenseless 
back,  was  one  of  the  funniest  performances  I 
ever  saw.  Josiah  lost  in  the  end. 

The  President  himself  teaches  his  boys  how 
to  shoot;  he  swims  with  them  in  the  cove  and 
goes  with  them  on  long  horseback  rides,  start- 
ing sometimes  before  sunrise.  On  fine  days,  as 
often  as  he  can  get  away,  luncheon  is  packed  in 
the  row-boat  and  he  takes  the  whole  family 
rowing  to  some  distant  point  on  the  shore, 
which  even  the  secret  service  men  have  not  dis- 
covered, and  there  they  spend  the  day,  the 
President  pulling  the  oars  going  and  coming. 
Or  else  he  takes  Mrs.  Roosevelt  alone  on  a  little 
jaunt,  and  these  two,  over  whose  honeymoon 

[319] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  years  have  no  dominion,  have  a  day  to  them- 
selves, from  which  he  returns  to  wrestle  with 
powers  and  principalities  and  postmasters  with 
twice  the  grip  he  had  before;  for  she  is  truly 
his  helpmeet  and  as  wise  as  she  is  gentle  and 
good. 

When  he  wants  to  be  alone,  he  dons  a  flannel 
shirt,  shoulders  an  ax,  and  betakes  himself  to 
some  secluded  spot  in  the  woods  where  there 
are  trees  to  fell.  Then  the  sounds  that  echo 
through  the  forest  glade  tell  sometimes,  unless 
I  greatly  mistake,  of  other  things  than  lifeless 
logs  that  are  being  smitten, — postmasters  let  us 
say.  I  remember  the  story  of  Lincoln,  whom 
one  of  the  foreign  ambassadors  found  pacing 
the  White  House  garden  in  evident  distress, 
at  a  time  when  Lee  was  having  his  own  way 
with  the  Union  armies ;  whereat  the  ambassador 
expressed  his  regret  that  the  news  from  the 
field  so  distressed  the  President. 

"  From  the  field?  "  said  Mr.  Lincoln.  "  If 
that  were  all !  No,  it  is  that  wretched  postmas- 
tership  of  Brownsville  that  makes  life  a  bur- 
den." 

I  have  met  Mr.  Roosevelt  coming  in  with 
his  ax,  and  with  a  look  that  told  of  obsti- 
nate knots  smashed— yes,  I  think  they  were 

[320] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

smashed.  I  fancy  tougher  things  than  post- 
masters would  have  a  hard  time  resisting  the 
swing  of  that  strong  and  righteous  arm  bound 
on  hewing  its  way ;  wolves  howling  in  the  woods 
would  n't  stay  it,  I  know, — not  for  a  minute. 

The  great  day  is  when  he  goes  camping 
with  the  boys.  The  Sagamore  Hill  boys  and 
their  cousins  whose  summer  homes  are  near 
plan  it  for  months  ahead.  A  secluded  spot 
alongshore  is  chosen,  with  good  water  and  a 
nice  sand  beach  handy,  and  the  expedition  sets 
out  with  due  secrecy,  the  White  House  guards- 
men being  left  behind  to  checkmate  the  report- 
ers and  the  camera  fiends.  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  sail- 
ing-master and  chief  of  the  jolly  band.  Along 
in  the  afternoon  they  reach  their  hiding-place ; 
then  bait  and  fishing-poles  are  got  ready— for 
they  are  real  campers-out,  not  make-believes, 
and  though  they  have  grub  on  board,  fish  they 
must.  When  they  have  caught  enough,  the 
boys  bring  wood  and  build  a  fire.  The  Presi- 
dent rolls  up  his  sleeves  and  turns  cook. 

"  Urn-m!  "  says  Archie;  "  you  oughter  taste 
my  father's  beefsteak!  He  tumbles  them  all 
in  together,— meat,  onions,  and  potatoes,— but, 
um-m!  it  is  good." 

I  warrant  it  is,  and  that  they  eat  their  fill! 

[331] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  have  n't  forgotten  the  potatoes  I  roasted  by 
the  brook  in  the  wood-lot  when  I  was  a  boy. 
No  such  potatoes  grow  nowadays. 

Afterward,  they  sit  around  the  fire,  wrapped 
in  blankets,  and  tell  bear-stories  and  ghost- 
stories,  while  the  children  steal  furtive  glances 
at  the  shadows  closing  in  upon  the  circle  of 
flickering  light.  They  are  not  afraid,  those 
children.  The  word  is  not  in  the  Sagamore 
Hill  dictionary.  The  spectacle  of  little  Archie, 
hatless,  guiding  a  stalwart  Rough-Rider 
through  the  twilight  woods,  telling  him  to  fol- 
low his  white  head  and  not  be  afraid  of 
bogies, — they  won't  hurt  him, — is  a  joy  to  me 
forever.  But  when  owls  are  hooting  in  the  dark 
woods  I  like  to  hug  the  fire  myself.  It  feels 
twice  as  good  then. 

When  the  stars  shine  out  in  the  sky  over- 
head, they  stretch  themselves  with  their  feet  to 
the  fire,  roll  up  in  their  blankets,  and  sleep 
the  untroubled  sleep  of  the  woods.  The  sun, 
peeping  over  the  trees,  finds  them  sporting  in 
the  cool,  salt  water;  and  long  before  the  day 
begins  for  the  world  of  visitors  they  are  back 
home,  a  happy,  roistering  crew. 

The  Roosevelts  have  found   (if  they  have 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

not  always  had  it;  certainly  the  President's 
father  did)  the  secret  that  binds  families  to- 
gether with  bonds  which  nothing  can  break: 
they  are  children  with  their  boys  and  girls. 
How  simple  a  secret,  yet  how  many  of  us  have 
lost  it !  I  did  not  even  know  I  was  one  of  them, 
or  what  it  was  that  had  come  between  me  and 
my  little  lad— the  one  who  figured  out  after 
hours  of  deep  study,  when  our  second  grand- 
child was  born,  that  now  he  was  "  two  uncles  " 
—until  one  bright  day  last  summer  when  I 
went  fishing  with  him.  I  wanted  to  know  where 
he  went  when  he  disappeared  for  whole  days  at 
a  time ;  and  when  I  volunteered  to  dig  the  bait 
by  a  new  method  that  made  the  worms  come 
up  of  themselves  to  locate  a  kind  of  earthquake 
I  was  causing,  he  took  me  by  many  secret 
paths  to  a  pond  hidden  deep  in  the  woods  a 
mile  away,  which  was  his  preserve.  There  we 
sat  solemnly  angling  for  shiners  an  inch  long, 
with  bent  pins  on  lines  of  thread,  and  were 
nearly  eaten  up  by  mosquitoes.  But  to  him  it 
was  lovely,  and  so  it  was  to  me,  for  it  gave  me 
back  my  boy.  That  evening,  on  the  way  home, 
his  boyish  hand  stole  into  mine  with  a  new  con- 
fidence. We  were  chums  now,  and  all  was  well. 

[323] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

When  they  were  little,  the  Roosevelt  boys 
and  girls  went  to  the  Cove  school,  which  is  the 
public  school  of  the  district,  where  the  children 
of  the  gardener  and  the  groom  go,  as  well  as 
those  of  their  employers  if  they  live  there  in 
the  school  season.  Now,  in  Washington,  the 
Roosevelts  follow  the  same  plan.  The  public 
school  first,  as  far  as  it  will  carry  the  children 
to  advantage,  thereafter  the  further  training 
for  college.  It  is  the  thoroughly  sound  and 
sensible  way  in  which  they  do  all  things  in  the 
Sagamore  Hill  family.  So  only  can  we  get 
a  grip  on  the  real  life  we  all  have  to  live  in  a 
democracy  of  which,  when  all  is  said  and  done, 
the  public  school  is  the  main  prop.  So,  and 
in  no  other  way,  can  we  hold  the  school  to  ac- 
count, and  so  do  we  fight  from  the  very  start 
the  class  spirit  that  is  the  arch  enemy  of  the  re- 
public. If  it  could  be  done  that  way,  I  would 
have  it  ordered  by  law  that  every  American 
child,  be  its  parents  rich  or  poor,  should  go 
certain  years  to  public  school.  Only  it  cannot 
be  done  that  way,  but  must  be  left  to  the  citi- 
zens' common  sense  that  in  the  end  has  to  be 
counted  with  everywhere. 

All  real  children  are  democrats  if  left  to  their 

[324] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

natural  bent,  and  the  Roosevelt  children  are 
real  children.  At  Groton  I  met  Ted,  the  old- 
est, with  his  arm  in  a  sling,  a  token  from  the 
football  game  and  also  from  a  scrap  he  had  had 
with  another  lad  who  called  him  "  the  first  boy 
in  the  land  "  and  got  a  good  drubbing  for  it. 
"  I  wish,"  said  Ted  to  me  in  deep  disgust,  "  that 
my  father  would  soon  be  done  holding  office. 
I  am  sick  and  tired  of  it." 

It  was  not  long  after  that  that  Ted  fell  iU 
with  pneumonia,  and  his  brother  Archie  sent 
him  his  painfully  scrawled  message  of  sympa- 
thy: "  I  hop  you  are  beter."  His  father  keeps 
it,  I  know,  in  that  sacred  place  in  his  heart 
where  lie  treasured  the  memories  of  letters  in 
childish  scrawl  that  brought  home  even  to  the 
trenches  before  Santiago,  with  the  shrapnel 
cracking  overhead. 

There  are  other  lessons  than  spelling  and 
grammar  to  be  learned  in  Washington, — les- 
sons of  democracy,  too,  in  their  way.  I  have 
heard  of  the  policeman  of  the  White  House 
Squad  who  was  discharged  for  cause,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  little  lad  who  answers  roll-call 
with  the  police  on  holidays  and  salutes  the  ser- 
geant as  gravely  as  the  men  in  blue  and  brass. 

[325] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

Archie  heard  him  out.  Appeal  to  his  father 
direct  was  cut  off — the  policeman  knew  why. 
But  Senator  Lodge,  who  is  next  friend  of  the 
President  and  is  supposed  to  have  a  "  pull," 
lives  in  Massachusetts  Avenue,  opposite  Ar- 
chie's school.  That  was  it. 

"  You  come  around/'  were  Archie's  direc- 
tions to  his  friend,  "  to  the  Force  School  to- 
morrow, and  we  will  see  what  Lodge  can  do 
about  it." 

What  "  Lodge  did  "  I  don't  know.  I  know 
it  would  have  been  hard  for  me  to  resist. 

It  was  the  privilege  of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  when 
he  was  nearer  home,  to  give  the  children  at  the 
Cove  school  their  Christmas  gifts,  and  the  mem- 
ory of  those  occasions  is  very  lively  in  Oyster 
Bay.  Mr.  Roosevelt  made  a  good  Santa  Claus, 
never  better  than  when  he  was  just  home  from 
the  war,  with  San  Juan  hill  for  a  background. 
That  time  he  nearly  took  the  boys'  breath  away. 
Nowadays  some  one  else  has  to  take  his  place ; 
the  gifts  come,  as  in  the  past,  and  the  little 
"  coves  "  are  made  happy.  But  the  President 
comes  into  their  lives  only  twice  or  three  times 
a  year — at  Christmas  and  when  he  comes  home 
for  his  vacation;  perhaps  on  the  Fourth  of 

[326] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

July.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  is  part  of  it  all  the  time, 
and  a  very  lovely  because  a  loving  part  of  life 
in  the  little  village.  When  I  hear  of  her  go- 
ing about  among  its  people,  their  friend  and 
neighbor  in  the  true  sense,  I  think  of  her  hus- 
band's father,  the  elder  Theodore,  who  syste- 
matically took  one  day  out  of  six  for  personal 
visitation  among  his  poor  friends;  and  how 
near  they,  both  he  and  she,  have  come  to  the 
mark  which  the  rest  of  us  go  all  around  and 
miss  with  such  prodigious  toil  and  trouble. 
Neighborliness, — that  covers  the  ground.  It 
is  all  that  is  needed. 

They  have  a  sewing-circle  in  Oyster  Bay,  the 
St.  Hilda  chapter  of  the  Society  of  Christ 
Church,  which  the  Roosevelts  attend ;  and  of  its 
twenty-odd  members,  embracing  the  wives  of 
the  harness-maker,  the  conductor,  the  oyster- 
man, — the  townspeople  whom  she  has  known  all 
her  married  life, — there  is  no  more  faithful  at- 
tendant at  the  Thursday-afternoon  meetings 
than  Mrsr.  Roosevelt.  She  brings  her  own 
thimble  and  cotton,  and  hems  and  sews  with 
the  rest  of  them  the  little  garments  of  outing- 
flannel  or  unbleached  muslin  that  are  worn  by 
the  child  cripples  in  the  House  of  St.  Giles, 

[327] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Brooklyn,  the  while  she  gossips  with  them  and 
tells  all  about  the  fine  doings  in  Washington. 
I  saw  not  long  ago  in  a  newspaper  that  some 
thoughtless  woman  who  had  demanded  of  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  a  gift  for  a  church  fair,  and  had  re- 
ceived a  handkerchief  hemmed  by  herself,  had 
sent  it  back  with  the  message  that  something 
better  was  wanted.  I  hope  this  which  I  am 
writing  here  will  come  under  her  eye  and  make 
her  sorry  for  what  she  did.  At  that  very  time 
the  President's  wife,  with  six  children  whose 
bringing  up  she  supervises  herself,  and  with 
all  the  social  burdens  of  the  mistress  of  the 
White  House  upon  her  shoulders,  was  patiently 
cutting  and  sewing  a  half-dozen  nightgowns 
for  the  little  tortured  limbs  of  her  crippled 
friends,  and  doing  it  all  herself  for  love's  sake. 
She  had  brought  them  with  her  from  Oyster 
Bay  and  finished  them  in  the  White  House, 
where,  I  suppose,  the  church-fair  woman 
thought  she  was  being  amused  to  keep  from 
perishing  of  ennui. 

They  recall  in  that  sewing-circle  the  days  of 
the  war,  when  Mrs.  Roosevelt,  walking  down 
from  the  hill  every  Thursday  to  their  meeting, 
and  never  betraying  by  word  or  look  the  care 

[3281 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

that  gnawed  at  her  heart,  grew  thin  and  pale 
as  the  days  went  by  with  news  of  fighting  and 
her  husband  in  the  thick  of  it;  till  on  the  day 
of  San  Juan  hill  the  rector's  wife  caught  her 
impetuously  into  her  embrace  before  them  all, 
and  told  her  that  Colonel  Roosevelt  was  a  hero, 
without  doubt,  "  but  you  are  three." 

And  they  tell,  while  they  wipe  a  tear  away 
with  the  apron  corner,  of  the  consumptive  girl 
lying  in  her  bed  longing  for  the  bright  world 
which  she  would  never  see,  to  whom  the  then 
Vice-President's  wife  brought  back  from  the 
inauguration  ball  her  dance-card  and  her  bou- 
quet, and  all  the  little  trinkets  she  could  gather 
for  her  in  Washington,  to  make  her  heart  glad. 
No  wonder  they  think  her  a  saint.  There  are 
those  in  Washington,  in  need  and  in  sorrow, 
I  am  told,  who  would  think  so,  too,  did  they 
know  the  whence  of  the  helping  hand  that 
comes  just  in  time.  It  was  so  in  Albany,  I 
know.  No  one  ever  appealed  to  the  Governor's 
wife  without  having  his  case  intelligently  and 
sympathetically  inquired  into,  so  that  she  might 
know  exactly  how  to  help.  Mrs.  Roosevelt 
does  not  believe  in  wasting  anything,  least  of  all 
sweet  charity.  With  her  husband  she  wisely 

[329] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

maintains  that  the  poorest  service  one  can  ren- 
der his  neighbor  is  to  carry  him  when  he  ought 
to  walk. 

As  for  the  St.  Hilda  circle,  its  measure  was 
full  last  summer  when  Mrs.  Roosevelt  took  it 
out  in  a  body  on  the  Sylph  to  the  naval  review 
in  the  Sound,  and  the  great  ships  gave  them  the 
Presidential  salute, — or  the  Sylph,  anyway, 
which  was  the  same  thing.  Were  they  not  on 
board,  its  honored  guests? 

The  same  simple  way  of  living  that  has  al- 
ways been  theirs  at  home,  they  carried  with 
them  to  the  White  House.  I  do  not  know  how 
other  Presidents  lived,  for  I  was  never  there 
before,  but  I  imagine  no  one  ever  led  a  more 
plain  and  wholesome  life  than  the  Roosevelts 
do.  I  cannot  think  that  there  was  ever  a  family 
there  that  had  so  good  a  time.  The  children 
are  still  the  mother's  chief  care.  They  have 
their  hour  that  is  for  them  only,  when  she 
reads  to  them  or  tells  them  stories  in  her  room, 
and  at  all  other  hours  they  are  privileged  to  in- 
trude except  when,  on  Tuesday,  their  mother 
entertains  the  cabinet  ladies  in  the  library.  She 
is  never  too  busy  to  listen  to  their  little  stories 
of  childish  pleasure  and  trouble,  and  they  bring 

[330] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

to  her  everything,  from  the  first  dandelion 
Quentin  found  in  the  White  Lot  to  the  latest 
prank  of  Algonquin,  the  calico  pony  that  was 
smuggled  up  in  the  elevator  to  Archie  when 
he  was  sick  with  the  measles.  Algonquin  is 
about  the  size  of  a  big  Newfoundland  dog, 
but  twice  as  lively  with  his  heels.  That  was  a 
prank  of  the  stable-boy,  aided  and  abetted,  I 
imagine,  by  the  doorkeeper,  who  had  been  a 
boy  himself,  and  to  whom  the  swiftly  flashing 
legs  of  Archie  in  the  corridors  of  the  old  build- 
ing are  like  spring  come  again.  They  all  love 
him;  no  one  can  help  it. 

But  I  must  not  be  tempted  to  write  about 
the  children,  since  then  there  would  be  no  end, 
and  this  is  a  story  of  their  father. 

I  might  even  be  led  to  betray  the  secret  of 
the  morning  battles  with  pillows  when  the 
children,  in  stealthy,  night-robed  array,  am- 
bush their  father  and  compel  him  to  ignomin- 
ious surrender  if  they  catch  him  "  down." 
That  is  the  rule  of  the  game.  I  remember 
the  morning  when  they  came  swarming  down 
about  him,  rejoicing  in  their  victory,  and  his 
sober  counsel  to  them  to  go  slow  thenceforth, 
for  Rose,  their  maid,  whom  they  brought  with 

[331] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

them  from  Oyster  Bay,  and  whom  wild  horses 
could  n't  drag  away  from  the  Roosevelts,  had 
protested  that  they  mussed  the  beds  too  much. 
I  have  read  of  President  Jackson  making 
an  isolated  ward  of  the  White  House,  and 
himself  nursing  a  faithful  attendant  who  was 
stricken  with  the  smallpox,  when  his  fellow-ser- 
vants had  run  away ;  and  of  Lincoln  laughingly 
accepting  General  Grant's  refusal  of  the  din- 
ner Mrs.  Lincoln  had  planned  in  his  honor, 
because  he  had  "  had  enough  of  the  show  busi- 
ness." The  Colonel  of  the  Rough-Riders 
bowing  obediently  before  the  law  of  the  house- 
hold, and  retreating  before  Rose  where  she  was 
rightfully  in  command,  belongs  with  them  in 
my  gallery  of  heroes;  and  not  a  bit  less  hero 
does  he  seem  to  me,  but  more. 

The  White  House  in  its  new  shape — or,  ra- 
ther, as  restored  to  the  plan  that  was  in  the 
minds  of  the  builders — is  in  its  simple  dignity 
as  beautiful  a  mansion  as  any  land  has  to 
show,  altogether  a  fitting  residence  for  the 
President  of  the  American  Republic.  The 
change  is  apparent  to  the  casual  visitor  as  soon 
as  he  enters  the  great  hall,  where  the  noble 
white  pillars  have  been  set  free,  as  it  were,  from 

[332] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

their  hideously  incongruous  environment  of 
stained  glass  and  partition,  and  stand  out  in 
all  their  massive  beauty.  Really,  the  hall  is  as 
handsome  a  place  as  I  have  ever  seen.  Up- 
stairs, where  the  public  does  not  come,  a  wide 
corridor,  I  should  think  quite  twenty  feet, 
that  is  in  itself  a  cozy  living-room,  with  its 
prevailing  colors  dark  green  and  gray,  runs 
the  whole  length  of  the  building  from  east 
to  west,  and  upon  it  open  the  family  rooms 
and  the  guest-rooms.  The  great  hall  makes 
a  splendid  ball-ground,  as  I  know  from  expe- 
rience, for  I  joined  Ethel  and  Archie  in  a 
game  there,  wrhich  they  would  have  won  by 
about  99  to  0,  I  should  say,  if  there  had  been 
any  score,  which  there  was  n't.  At  the  east 
end  of  the  hall  is  the  President's  den,  where 
the  lamp  burns  late  into  the  small  hours  many 
a  night  when  the  world  sleeps  without.  There 
he  keeps  the  swords  and  the  sticks  with  which 
he  takes  vigorous  exercise  when  he  cannot  ride. 
The  woodman's  ax  he  leaves  behind  at  Oyster 
Bay. 

The  day  begins  at  exactly  8 : 30  at  the  White 
House.  The  President  himself  pours  the  cof- 
fee at  breakfast.  It  is  one  of  his  privileges,  and 

[333] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

he  looks  fine  as  host.  I  can  almost  hear  my 
woman  reader  say,  "  What  do  they  eat  at  a 
White  House  breakfast?  "  Oatmeal,  eggs  and 
bacon,  coffee  and  rolls — there  is  one  morning's 
menu.  I  don't  think  they  would  object  to  my 
telling,  and  I  like  to  think  that  in  thousands  of 
homes  all  over  our  land  they  are  sharing  the 
President's  breakfast,  as  it  were.  It  brings  us 
all  so  much  nearer  together,  and  that  is  where 
we  belong.  That  was  why  I  told  of  the  chil- 
dren's play.  And  if  there  is  any  who  thinks 
that  his  sporting  with  the  little  ones  when  it 
is  the  hour  of  play  makes  him  any  less  fitted  for 
the  work  he  has  to  do  for  all  of  us,— why,  he 
never  made  a  bigger  mistake.  Ask  the  politi- 
cians and  the  place-seekers  who  come  to  see 
him  in  the  early  hours  of  the  afternoon,  and 
hear  what  they  think  of  it. 

From  breakfast  to  luncheon  the  President  is 
in  his  office,  seeing  the  people  who  come  from 
everywhere  to  shake  hands,  or  with  messages 
for  the  Chief  Magistrate. 

Along  in  the  afternoon  the  horses  are 
brought  up  and  the  President  goes  riding  with 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  or  alone.  Once  I  heard  him 
tempt  Secretary  Root  to  go,  and  the  Secretary 

[334] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

agreed  if  he  would  guarantee  that  Wyoming, 
the  horse  he  offered  him,  would  not  kneel.  He 
was  averse  to  foreign  customs,  he  said. 

"  Yes,"  laughed  the  President,  "  you  are 
a  good  American  citizen,  and  home  ways  are 
good  enough  for  you." 

I  have  a  ride  on  Wyoming  coming  to  me, 
and  I  am  glad.  I  was  cheated  out  of  it  the 
last  time,  because  Washington  had  so  tired  me 
out  that  the  President  would  not  take  me. 
And  Wyoming  can  kneel  if  he  wants  to.  I 
think  I  would  let  him  jump  a  fence  with  me 
where  his  master  led.  I  guess  I  know  how 
his  Rough-Riders  felt. 

That  was  the  only  time  Washington  tired 
me  out.  I  had  come  to  help  tackle  its  slums, 
for  it  has  them,  more  's  the  pity.  Ordinarily  it 
is  one  of  my  holiday  cities :  I  have  three,  Wash- 
ington, Boston,  and  Springfield,  Massachu- 
setts. As  to  Boston  and  Springfield,  I  suppose 
it  is  just  because  I  like  them.  But  Washington 
is  a  holiday  city  to  me  because  he  is  there.  When 
he  was  in  Albany  that  was  one.  To  Washing- 
ton I  take  my  wife  when  we  want  to  be  young 
again,  and  we  go  and  sit  in  the  theater  and 
weep  over  the  miseries  of  the  lovers,  and  rejoice 

[335] 


THEODO&E  ROOSEVELT 

with  them  when  it  all  comes  right  in  the  end. 
There  should  be  a  law  to  make  all  lovers  happy 
in  the  end,  and  to  slay  all  the  villains,  at  least 
in  the  national  capital.  And  then,  nowadays, 
we  go  to  the  White  House,  and  that  is  the  best 
of  all.  I  shall  never  forget  the  Christmas  be- 
fore last,  when  I  told  the  President  and  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  at  breakfast  of  my  old  mother  who 
was  sick  in  Denmark  and  longing  for  her  boy, 
and  my  hostess's  gentle  voice  as  she  said, 
"  Theodore,  let  us  cable  over  our  love  to  her." 
And  they  did.  Before  that  winter  day  was 
at  an  end  (and  the  twilight  shadows  were  steal- 
ing over  the  old  town  by  the  bleak  North  Sea 
even  while  we  breakfasted  in  Washington)  the 
telegraph  messenger,  in  a  state  of  bewilder- 
ment,— I  dare  say  he  has  not  got  over  it  yet, — 
brought  mother  this  despatch: 

"  THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  Dec.  20,  1902. 
"  MRS.  RIIS,  RIBE,  DENMARK  : 

"  Your  son  is  breakfasting  with  us.    We  send 
you  our  loving  sympathy. 

"  THEODORE  AND  EDITH  ROOSEVELT." 

Where  is  there  a  mother  who  would  not  get 
up  out  of  a  sick-bed  when  she  received  a  mes- 

1336] 


AT  HOME  AND  AT  PLAY 

sage  like  that,  even  though  at  first  she  would 
not  believe  it  was  true?  And  where  is  the  son 
who  would  not  cherish  the  deed  and  the  doer 
forever  in  his  heart  of  hearts?  But  it  is  the 
doing  of  that  sort  of  thing  that  is  their  dear 
delight,  those  two ;  and  that  is  why  I  am  writing 
about  them  here,  for  I  would  like  every  one  to 
know  them  just  as  they  are.  Here  is  a  friend 
'way  out  in  Kansas,  whose  letter  came  this  min- 
ute, writing,  "  the  President  who  walks  through 
your  pages  is  a  very  heroic  and  kingly  figure, 
a  very  Arthur  among  his  knights  at  the  round 
table."  Truly  the  President  is  that.  I  think 
we  can  all  begin  to  make  it  out,  except  those  who 
are  misled  and  those  in  whose  natures  there  is 
nothing  to  which  the  kingly  in  true  manhood 
appeals.  But  could  I  show  you  him  as  he  really 
is,  as  husband,  father,  and  friend,  you  would 
have  to  love  him  even  if  you  disagreed  with 
him  about  everything.  You  just  could  n't  help 
it  any  more  than  could  one  of  the  old-time  em- 
ployes in  the  White  House  who  stopped  beside 
me  as  I  stood  looking  at  him  coming  across 
from  the  Executive  Office  the  other  day. 

r<  There  he  is,"  said  he,  and  his  face  lighted 
up.  "  I  don't  know  what  there  is  about  that  man 

[337] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  make  me  feel  so.  I  have  seen  a  good  many 
Presidents  come  and  go  in  this  old  house,  and  I 
liked  them  all.  They  were  all  good  and  kind ; 
but  I  declare  I  feel  as  if  I  could  go  twice  as 
far  and  twice  as  quick  when  he  asks  me  to,  and 
do  it  twice  as  gladly." 

I  guess  he  knows,  too,  how  his  Rough-Riders 
felt  about  their  Colonel. 


1888] 


XIV 
CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 


XIV 
CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

WHEN  the  President  came  back  from 
his  long  Western  trip,  I  went  to 
meet  him  on  the  Long  Island 
ferry.  I  had  myself  returned  from  the  Western 
country  a  little  while  before,  a  very  tired  man, 
though  I  had  only  to  lecture  once  each  night; 
and  when  I  remembered  his  experience  on  that 
record-breaking  journey  I  expected  to  meet  a 
jaded,  worn-out  man.  But  his  powers  of  physi- 
cal endurance  are  truly  marvelous.  I  found 
him  as  fresh,  to  all  appearances,  as  if  he  had 
been  off  in  the  woods  on  a  hunt  instead  of 
shaking  hands  with  and  being  entertained  by 
half  the  nation.  No  doubt  going  home  was 
part  of  it;  for  he  knew  how  they  had  counted 
the  days  to  his  return  at  Sagamore  Hill,  and 
now  an  hour  or  two — then  he  should  see  them. 

[341] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

His  eyes  fairly  danced  as  he  sat  down  to  tell 
me  of  the  trip.  There  was  so  much,  he  said, 
that  it  would  take  a  month.  And  then,  as  in 
mind  he  went  back  over  the  thousands  of  miles 
he  had  traveled,  the  Sunday  quiet  of  a  little 
Kansas  prairie  town,  and  a  picture  from  the 
service  that  brought  the  farmers  in  from  fifty 
miles  around,  stood  out  among  all  the  rest. 
The  children  came  to  his  car  to  take  him  to 
church,  and  when  the  people  had  all  been 
seated  two  little  girls  for  whom  there  was  no 
room  stood  by  his  pew.  He  took  them  in 
and  shared  his  hymn-book  with  them,  and  the 
three  sang  together,  they  with  their  clear  girl- 
ish voices,  he  with  his  deep  bass.  They  were 
not  afraid  or  embarrassed;  he  was  just  their 
big  brother  for  the  time.  And  there  was  the 
tenderness  in  his  voice  I  love  to  hear  as  he 
told  me  of  them. 

"  You  should  have  seen  their  innocent  little 
faces.  They  were  so  dainty  and  clean  in  their 
starched  dresses,  with  their  yellow  braids 
straight  down  their  backs.  And  they  thanked 
me  so  sweetly  for  sharing  the  book  with  them 
that  it  was  a  hardship  not  to  catch  them  Up 
in  one's  arms  and  hug  them  then  and  there." 

[342] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

Some  of  the  party  told  me  of  the  reception 
that  followed,  and  of  the  little  fellow  who 
squirmed  and  squirmed  in  the  grasp  of  the 
President's  hand,  twisting  this  way  and  that, 
in  desperate  search  of  something,  until  Mr. 
Roosevelt  asked  him  whom  he  was  looking  for. 

"  The  President,"  gasped  the  lad,  twisting 
harder  to  get  away,  for  fear  he  would  lose  his 
chance.  And  then  the  look  of  amazed  incredu- 
lity that  came  into  his  face  when  the  man  who 
still  had  him  by  the  hand  said  that  he  was  the 
President.  He  must  have  felt  as  I  did  when  I 
first  met  King  Christian  in  Copenhagen,  and 
learned  who  the  man  in  the  blue  overcoat  was, 
with  whom  I  had  such  a  good  time  telling  him 
all  about  my  boyish  ambitions  and  my  father 
and  home,  while  we  climbed  the  stairs  to  the 
picture  exhibition  in  the  palace  of  Charlotten- 
borg.  The  idea  of  a  real  king  in  an  overcoat 
and  a  plain  hat!  I  had  had  my  doubts  about 
whether  he  took  off  his  crown  when  he  went  to 
bed  at  night. 

That  is  the  boy  of  it,  I  suppose ;  and  they  are 
all  alike.  If  any,  you  would  think  the  preco- 
cious youngster  from  the  East-side  Jewry 
would  be  excepted;  but  he  is  not.  I  have  a 

[343] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fairly  representative  specimen  in  mind,  who 
wrote  home  from  his  vacation  in  Maine,  "  Tom 
Reed  has  seen  me  twice."  But  when  at  last  the 
privilege  was  vouchsafed  to  President  Roose- 
velt, speech  and  sense  forsook  our  East-sider, 
and  he  stood  and  looked  on,  gaping,  the  fine 
oration  he  had  committed  to  memory  clean 
gone  out  of  his  head.  He  explained  his  break 
after  the  President  was  gone. 

"  Why,"  he  gasped,  "  he  was  just  like  any 
other,  plain-clothes  man! " 

A  ribbon  or  sash,  at  least,  with  a  few  stars 
and  crosses,  a  fellow  might  have  expected. 
And,  when  you  come  to  think  of  it,  it  is  not 
so  strange.  Look  at  the  general  of  the  army  in 
gala  suit,  and  at  the  President,  his  commander- 
in-chief.  Which  makes  me  think  again  of 
Mr.  Cleveland,  who,  when  he  was  governor, 
togged  out  his  staff  in  the  most  gorgeous 
clothes  ever  seen,  and  when  heading  it  on  his 
way  to  a  public  function,  himself  in  plain  black, 
was  stopped  by  an  underling,  who  took  one 
glance  at  the  procession  and  waved  it  back. 

"  The  band  goes  the  other  way,"  he  said. 

Long  years  after,  Mr.  Cleveland  had  not 
stopped  laughing  at  the  recollection  of  the  look 

[344] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

that  sat  upon  the  faces  of  the  gold-laced  com- 
pany of  distinguished  citizens. 

But  I  was  thinking  of  President  Roosevelt's 
affection  for  children.  It  is  just  the  experi- 
ence of  an  unspoiled  nature  that  reaches  out 
for  what  is  pure  and  natural.  I  remember  that 
the  day  we  were  making  the  trip  of  the  tene- 
ment-house sweat-shops  together,  we  came,  in 
one  of  the  Italian  flats,  upon  a  little  family 
scene.  A  little  girl  was  going  to  confirmation, 
all  dressed  in  white,  with  flowers  and  veil.  She 
stood  by  her  grandmother's  chair  in  the  dingy 
room,  a  radiant  vision,  with  reverently  bowed 
head  as  the  aged  hand  was  laid  in  trembling 
benediction  upon  her  brow.  The  Governor 
stopped  on  the  threshold  and  surveyed  the 
scene  with  kindling  eyes. 

"  Sweet  child,"  he  said,  and  learned  her 
name  and  age  from  the  parents,  who  received 
us  with  the  hospitable  courtesy  of  their  peo- 
ple. "  Tell  them,"  to  the  interpreter,  "  that 
I  am  glad  I  came  in  to  see  her,  and  that  I  be- 
lieve she  will  be  always  as  good  and  innocent 
as  she  is  now,  and  a  very  great  help  to  her 
mother  and  her  venerable  grandmother."  That 
time  I  did  get  a  chance  to  tell  them  who  it  was 

[345] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

that  had  come  to  the  feast,  so  that  it  might  add 
to  the  pleasure  of  the  day  for  them.  I  just 
sneaked  back  and  told  them. 

The  children  usually  take  to  him,  as  he  to 
them,  in  the  same  perfect  good  faith.  We  saw 
it  in  Mulberry  Street,  after  he  had  gone,  when 
two  little  tots  came  from  over  on  the  East  Side 
asking  for  "  the  Commissioner,"  that  they 
might  obtain  justice.  I  can  see  them  now:  the 
older  a  little  hunchback  girl,  with  her  poor 
shawl  pinned  over  her  head  and  the  sober  look 
of  a  child  who  has  known  want  and  pinching 
poverty  at  an  age  when  she  should  have  been 
at  play,  dragging  her  reluctant  baby  brother 
by  the  hand.  His  cheeks  were  tear-stained, 
and  his  little  nose  was  bruised  and  bloody,  and 
he  was  altogether  an  unhappy  boy,  in  his  role 
of  "  evidence,"  under  the  scrutiny  of  the  big 
policeman  at  the  door.  It  was  very  plain  that 
he  would  much  rather  not  have  been  there. 
But  the  decrees  of  fate  were  no  more  merciless 
than  his  sister's  grasp  on  him  as  she  marched 
him  in  and  put  the  case  to  the  policeman.  They 
had  come  from  Allen  Street,  then  the  Red 
Light  District.  Some  doubtful  "  ladies  "  had 
moved  into  their  tenement,  she  explained,  and 

[346] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

the  other  tenants  had  "  made  trouble  "  with  the 
police.  The  "  ladies,"  locating  the  source  of 
the  trouble  in  their  flat,  had  seized  upon  the 
child  and  "  punched "  his  nose.  They  had 
even  had  to  send  for  a  doctor.  She  unrolled 
a  bundle  and  showed  a  bottle  of  medicine  in 
corroboration.  Her  brother  had  suffered  and 
the  household  had  been  put  to  expense.  Seeing 
which,  she  had  collected  her  evidence  and  come 
straight  to  Police  Headquarters  to  "  see  the 
Commissioner."  Having  said  it,  she  waited 
calmly  for  directions,  sure  that  when  she  found 
the  Commissioner  they  would  get  justice. 

And  they  did  get  it,  though  Roosevelt  was 
no  longer  there.  It  was  for  him  they  had  come. 
Nothing  that  happened  in  all  that  time  showed 
better  how  deep  was  the  mark  he  left.  It  was 
his  legacy  to  Mulberry  Street  that  the  children 
should  come  there  seeking  justice,  and  their 
faith  was  not  to  be  put  to  shame. 

In  those  days  he  would  sometimes  slip  away 
with  me  from  Headquarters  for  an  hour  with 
the  little  Italians  in  the  Sullivan  Street  Indus- 
trial School,  or  some  other  work  of  the  Chil- 
dren's Aid  Society,  in  which  his  father  had 
borne  a  strong  hand.  It  was  after  the  first 

[347] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

McKinley  election  that  we  surprised  Miss 
Satterie's  school  (in  Sullivan  Street)  at  their 
Christmas-tree.  They  were  singing  "  Children 
of  the  Heavenly  King,"  and  the  teacher,  with 
the  pride  in  her  pupils  that  goeth  before  a 
fall,  according  to  the  proverb,  held  up  the 
singing  without  warning,  and  asked: 

"  Children,  who  is  this  heavenly  King? " 

It  was  not  a  fair  question,  with  a  small  bat- 
talion of  pink-robed  dolls  nodding  from  the 
branches  of  the  tree,  and  ice-cream  being 
brought  in  in  pails.  Heaven  enough  in  Sul- 
livan Street  for  them,  just  then.  There  was  a 
dead  silence  that  was  becoming  painful  when 
a  little  brown  fist  shot  up  from  a  rear  bench. 

"Well,  Vito!"  said  the  teacher,  relieved, 
"  who  is  he?  " 

"  McKinley,"  piped  the  youngster.  He  had 
not  forgotten  the  fireworks  and  the  flags  and 
the  brass  bands.  Could  anything  be  grander? 
And  all  in  honor  of  McKinley.  What  better 
proof  that  he  must  be  the  King — of  Sullivan 
Street  anyway,  where  heaven  had  just  found 
lodgment  ? 

When  Roosevelt  had  been  elected  governor, 
we  went  over  together  for  the  last  time;  for 

[348] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

it  was  getting  to  be  hard  for  him  to  go  around 
without  gathering  a  crowd,  and  I  saw  that 
he  did  not  like  it.  In  one  of  his  letters  not  long 
ago  he  spoke  of  the  old  days,  and  our  expe- 
ditions, and  of  how  he  wished  we  could  do 
again  what  we  did  then,  for  he  had  ever  a  great 
desire  to  get  close  to  the  real  life  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  was  a  natural  sympathy  for  his  honest 
but  poorer  neighbor,  for  whom  he  had  battled 
ever  since  life  meant  more  to  him  than  play. 
His  errand  being  one  of  friendly  interest,  and 
not  of  mere  curiosity,  there  was  never  any 
danger  of  his  seeming  to  patronize  by  his 
presence,  though,  if  he  thought  he  detected  the 
signs  of  it,  he  quickly  took  himself  out  of  the 
way.  With  the  children  there  was,  of  course, 
never  any  peril  of  that,  and  they  were  chums 
together  without  long  introduction.  "  I  sup- 
pose we  could  not  even  go  among  them  now- 
adays without  their  having  to  call  out  the 
police  reserves,"  he  complained  in  his  letter. 
Though  he  was  followed  by  a  cheering  crowd 
on  our  last  visit  to  the  Sullivan  Street  School, 
it  had  not  yet  quite  come  to  that.  He  pulled 
his  coat  collar  up  about  his  face,  and  we  es- 
caped around  the  corner. 

[349] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  big  brown  eyes  of  the  little  lads  grew 
bigger  and  darker  yet  that  day  as  he  told 
them  of  his  regiment,  and  of  his  Italian 
bugler  who  blew  his  trumpet  in  their  first  fight, 
telling  the  Rough-Riders  to  advance  under 
cover,  or  to  charge,  until  a  Spanish  bullet 
clipped  off  the  two  middle  fingers  of  the  hand 
that  held  the  bugle.  Then  he  went  and  had  it 
dressed  and  came  back  and  helped  carry  in  the 
wounded,  all  through  the  rest  of  the  fight,  with 
his  damaged  hand.  He  told  them  of  his  stan- 
dard-bearer who  carried  the  flag  right  through 
a  storm  of  bullets  that  tore  it  to  shreds;  of 
how  his  men  were  such  good  fighters  that  they 
never  gave  back  an  inch,  though  a  fourth  of 
them  all  were  either  killed  or  wounded;  and 
yet  no  sooner  was  the  fighting  over  than  they 
all  gave  half  of  their  hardtack  to  the  starving 
women  and  children  who  came  out  of  San- 
tiago. And  he  showed  them  that  true  manhood 
and  tenderness  toward  the  weak  go  always 
together,  and  that  the  boy  who  was  good  to 
his  mother  and  sister  and  little  brother,  decent 
and  clean  in  his  life,  would  grow  up  to  be  the 
best  American  citizen,  who  would  always  be 
there  when  he  was  wanted.  They  almost  for- 

[350] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

got  to  applaud  when  he  stopped,  so  breathlessly 
had  they  hung  upon  every  word.  But  they 
made  good  their  omission.  Talk  about  rous- 
ing the  military  spirit  which  some  of  my  good 
friends  so  dread — I  think  he  kindled  some- 
thing that  day  in  those  little  hearts,  whom, 
unthinking,  we  had  passed  by,  that  will  tell  for 
our  country  in  years  to  come.  I  should  not  be 
afraid  of  rousing  any  amount  of  the  fighting 
spirit  that  is  bound  to  battle  for  the  weak  and 
the  defenseless  and  the  right.  And  that  is  the 
kind  he  stirs  wherever  he  goes. 

Sometimes,  when  I  speak  of  the  children  of 
the  poor,  some  one  says  to  me, — once  it  was  the 
great  master  of  a  famous  school, — "  Yes,  they 
have  their  hardships ;  but  God  help  the  children 
of  the  rich  who  have  none !  "  And  he  is  right. 
In  his  life  Theodore  Roosevelt  furnishes  the 
precise  antidote  for  the  idleness  and  the  sel- 
fishness that  threaten  to  eat  the  heart  out  of 
theirs.  His  published  writings  fairly  run  over, 
from  the  earliest  day,  with  the  gospel  of  work, 
and  surely  he  has  practised  what  he  preaches 
as  few  have.  "  Theodore  Roosevelt,  a  bright 
precocious  boy,  aged  twelve,"  wrote  a  distin- 
guished New  York  physician  of  him,  in  his 

[351] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"  case-book,"  thirty-odd  years  ago;  and  added 
to  his  partner,  "  He  ought  to  make  his  mark 
in  the  world  but  for  the  difficulty  that  he  has 
a  rich  father"  ;  so  he  told  me  after  Roosevelt 
had  become  Governor.  It  was  a  difficulty, — 
is  with  too  many  to-day.  It  is  not  Roosevelt's 
least  merit  that  he  has  shown  to  those  how  to 
overcome  it.  But  I  own  that  my  heart  turns 
to  him  as  the  champion  of  his  poorer  brother, 
ever  eager  and  ready  to  give  him  a  helping 
hand.  When  I  read,  in  the  accounts  of  his 
journey  in  the  West,  of  the  crowd  that  be- 
sieged his  train,  and  how  he  picked  out  a  little 
crippled  child  in  it,  and  took  it  up  in  his  arms, 
then  I  knew  him  as  I  have  seen  him  over  and 
over  again,  and  as  I  love  him  best.  I  knew  him 
then  for  the  son  of  his  big-hearted  father,  to 
whom  wrong  and  suffering  of  any  kind,  any- 
where, appealed  with  such  an  irresistible  claim 
that  in  his  brief  lifetime  he  became  the  great- 
est of  moral  forces  in  my  city. 

Then  I  see  him  as  he  stood  that  day  on  the 
car  platform  at  Greenport,  shaking  hands  with 
the  school  children  that  came  swarming  down 
just  as  the  train  was  going  to  pull  out.  I  see 
him  spy  the  forlorn  little  girl  in  the  threadbare 

[352] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

coat,  last  among  them  all,  who  had  given  up 
in  dumb  despair,  for  how  should  she  ever  reach 
her  hero  through  that  struggling  crowd,  with 
the  engineer  even  then  tooting  the  signal  to 
start?  And  I  see  him  leap  from  the  plat- 
form and  dive  into  the  surging  tide  like  a 
strong  swimmer  striking  from  the  shore,  make 
a  way  through  the  shouting  mob  of  youngsters 
clear  to  where  she  was  on  the  outskirts  looking 
on  hopelessly,  seize  and  shake  her  hand  as  if 
his  very  heart  were  in  his,  and  then  catch  the 
moving  train  on  a  run,  while  she  looked  after 
it,  her  pale,  tear-stained  face  one  big,  happy 
smile.  That  was  Roosevelt,  every  inch  of  him, 
and  don't  you  like  him,  too? 

People  laugh  a  little,  sometimes,  and  poke 
fun  at  his  "  race  suicide,"  but  to  him  the  chil- 
dren mean  home,  family,  the  joy  of  the  young 
years,  and  the  citizenship  of  to-morrow,  all  in 
one.  And  I  do  not  think  we  have  yet  made 
out  to  the  full  what  the  ideal  of  home,  held 
as  he  holds  it,  means  to  us  all  in  a  man  whose 
life  is  avowedly  given  to  public  affairs,  and 
whose  way  has  led  him  clear  to  the  top.  After 
all,  we  sum  up  in  the  one  word  all  that  is  worth 
working  for  and  fighting  for.  With  that  gone, 

[353] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

what  were  left?  But  it  has  seemed  in  this 
generation  as  if  every  influence,  especially  in 
our  big  cities,  were  hostile  to  the  home,  and 
that  was  one  reason  why  I  hailed  the  coming 
of  this  plain  man  of  olc^-time  ideals  into  our 
people's  life,  and  wanted  him  to  be  as  close 
to  it  as  he  could  get.  His  enemies  never  un- 
derstood either  the  one  or  the  other.  I  re- 
member when  in  the  Police  Department  they 
had  him  shadowed  at  night,  thinking  to  catch 
him  "  off  his  guard."  He  flushed  angrily 
when  he  heard  it. 

"What!"  he  cried,  "going  home  to  my 
babies?." 

But  his  anger  died  in  a  sad  little  laugh  of 
pity  and  contempt.  That  was  their  way. 
They  could  not  understand.  And  to-day  he  is 
the  beloved  Chief  of  the  Nation ;  and  where  are 
they? 

When  he  came  home,  his  first  errand,  when 
the  children  were  little,  was  always  to  the  nurs- 
ery. Nowadays  they  are  big  enough  to  run 
to  meet  him — and  they  do,  with  a  rush.  I  came 
home  with  him  one  day  when  he  was  in  the 
Navy  Department,  and  he  tempted  me  to  go 
up  with  him  to  see  the  babies. 

[354] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

"  But  not  to  play  bear,"  said  Mrs.  Roose- 
velt, warningly;  "the  baby  is  being  put  to 
sleep." 

ISTo,  he  would  not  play  bear,  he  promised, 
and  we  went  up.  But  it  is  hard  not  to  play 
bear  when  the  baby  squirms  out  of  the  nurse's 
arms  and  growls  and  claws  at  you  like  a  veri- 
table little  cub ;  and  in  five  minutes  Mrs.  Roose- 
velt, coming  to  investigate  the  cause  of  the 
noise  in  the  nursery,  opened  the  door  upon 
the  wildest  kind  of  a  circus,  with  the  baby 
screaming  his  delight.  I  can  recall  nothing 
more  amusing  than  that  tableau,  with  the  silent 
shape  upon  the  threshold  striving  hard  to  put 
on  a  look  of  great  sternness,  and  him,  meekly 
apologetic,  on  the  floor  with  the  baby,  ex- 
plaining, "  Well,  Edith,  it  was  this  way— 
We  never  found  out  which  way  it  was,  for  the 
humor  of  the  situation  was  too  much  for  us, 
— and  the  baby  was  thoroughly  awake  by  that 
time,  anyway.  I  say  I  can  think  of  nothing 
funnier,  unless  it  be  Kermit  taking  his  pet  rat 
out  of  his  pocket  at  the  breakfast-table  in  the 
White  House,  and  letting  it  hop  across  for  my 
inspection.  It  was  a  kangaroo-rat,  and  it 
nibbled  very  daintily  the  piece  of  sugar  the 

[355] 


THEODORA  ROOSEVELT 

President  gave  it.  But  it  was  something  new 
to  me  then.  I  have  heard  of  all  sorts  of  things 
in  a  boy's  pocket, — fish-hooks  and  nails  and 
bits  of  colored  glass.  But  a  live  rat,  never ! 

Kermit  was  along,  last  summer,  when  the 
President  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  went  down  in 
the  Sylpli  to  Twin  Island,  to  visit  the  summer 
home  of  my  people  in  Henry  Street.1  He  is  n't 
a  bit  awed  by  the  Presidency. 

"  U-ugh!  "  he  said,  with  a  look  of  comic  con- 
cern, as  the  President  leaped  into  the  launch, 
"  something  heavy  went  over  then." 

That  was  the  day  the  children  of  the  East 
Side  will  remember  to  the  last  day  of  their  lives. 
They  absolutely  deserted  their  dinner  when 
word  was  brought  that  the  Sylph  had  hove  to 
outside  the  rocks,  and  with  a  wild  rush  made 
for  the  shore,  where  they  stood  and  waved  their 
flags  and  shouted  their  welcome.  "  Three 
cheers  for  the  red,  white,  and  blue!  "  And  his 
foot  had  hardly  touched  the  shore  before  there 
were  from  six  to  a  dozen  youngsters  hanging 
to  each  hand,  and  plying  him  with  questions  as 
they  danced  up  the  jungle-path  to  the  house, 

1  The  Fresh  Air  Home  of  the  Jacob  A.  Riis  House  in  Henry 

Street  is  on  Twin  Island  in  Pelham  Bay  Park. 

[356] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

every  one  trying  to  look  into  his  face  while 
they  skipped  and  talked,  so  that  at  least  half 
of  them  were  walking  backward  on  the  toes  of 
those  next  to  them  all  the  while.  No  fear  of 
patronizing  there.  They  were  chums  on  the 
minute.  If  anything,  they  did  the  patroniz- 
ing, the  while  their  mothers  were  escorting 
Mrs.  Roosevelt  with  simple  dignity,  proud  of 
their  guest,  and  touched  in  their  innermost 
hearts  by  her  coming  among  them. 

"  Was  that  your  ship  what  was  all  lit  up  out 
there  last  night? "  I  heard  one  of  the  young- 
sters ask  the  President;  and  another,  who  had 
hold  of  the  skirt  of  his  coat,  took  in  the  island 
with  one  wide  sweep  of  his  unclaimed  hand: 
"  Ain't  it  bully?  " 

And  it  was.  Not  a  sign  "  Keep  off  the  grass  " 
on  the  whole  island ;  free  license  to  roam  where 
they  pleased,  to  wade  and  to  fish  and  to  gather 
posies,  or  to  sit  on  the  rocks  and  sing.  The 
visitors  went  from  the  woods  to  the  house,  saw 
the  big  bedrooms, — so  big  that  when  the  trees 
outside  waved  their  branches  in  the  patch  of 
moonlight  on  the  floor,  the  children  at  first  hud- 
dled together,  frightened,  in  a  corner.  They 
felt  as  if  they  were  outside  in  a  strange  coun- 

[357] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

try.  The  whole  tenement  flat  in  the  stony 
street  could  easily  have  been  packed  into  one 
of  those  rooms.  They  saw  them  eat  and  play 
and  skip  about  in  happiness  such  as  their  life 
had  been  stranger  to  before, — these  children  of 
few  opportunities;  and  the  President  turned 
to  me  with  a  joyous  little  laugh: 

"  Oh,  Jacob!  what  monument  to  man  is  there 
of  stone  or  bronze  that  equals  that  of  the  hap- 
piness of  these  children  and  mothers?  " 

That  was  a  great  day,  indeed.  Twin  Island, 
the  home  of  wealth  and  fashion  till  the  city 
made  a  park  alongshore  and  gave  us  the  use 
of  the  deserted  mansion,  never  saw  its  like. 

The  Christmas  bells  are  ringing  as  I  write 
this,  and  they  take  me  back  to  that  holiday 
season,  half  a  dozen  years  ago,  when  I  was  mis- 
taken for  Mr.  Roosevelt  with  startling  results. 
It  happened  once  or  twice,  when  he  was  Police 
Commissioner,  that  people  made  that  mistake. 
They  could  not  have  been  very  discerning ;  but, 
whether  or  no,  it  did  me  no  harm.  I  was  glad 
of  the  compliment.  This  time  I  had  gone  to 
see  the  newsboys  in  the  Duane  Street  lodging- 
house  get  their  Christmas  dinner.  There  were 
six  or  seven  hundred  of  them,  and  as  they 

[358] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

marched  past  to  the  long  tables  where  the 
plates  of  roast  turkey  stood  in  expectant  rows, 
with  a  whole  little  mince-pie  at  each  plate, 
the  little  shavers  were  last  in  the  line.  They 
were  just  as  brimful  of  mischief  as  they  could 
be,— that  was  easy  to  see.  The  superintendent 
pulled  my  sleeve  as  they  went  by,  with  a  "Watch 
out  now  and  you  '11  see  some  fun."  What  he 
meant  I  did  n't  know  then.  I  saw  only  a  swift 
movement  of  their  hands  as  they  went  by  the 
table,— too  swift  for  me  to  follow.  I  found  out 
when  they  sat  down  and  eight  grimy  little 
hands  shot  up  and  eight  aggrieved  little  voices 
piped : 

"  Mister,  I  ain't  got  no  pie!  " 

"  What!  "  said  the  superintendent,  with  an- 
other wink  to  me;  "no  pie!  There  must  be; 
I  put  it  there  myself.  Let  's  see  about  that." 

And  he  went  over  and  tapped  the  first  and 
the  smallest  of  the  lads  on  the  stomach,  where 
his  shirt  bulged. 

"What  's  that?"  he  said,  feeling  of  the 
bulge. 

"  Me  pie,"  said  the  lad,  unabashed.  "  I  wuz 
afeard  it  w'd  get  stole  on  me,  and  so  I—" 

They  had  "  swiped  "  the  pies  in  passing. 

[359] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"  Never  mind,"  said  the  superintendent,— 
"  never  mind,  we  '11  forgive  and  forget.  It  's 
Christmas!  Go  ahead,  boys,  and  eat."  And 
six  hundred  pairs  of  knives  and  forks  flashed, 
and  six  hundred  pairs  of  jaws  and  six  hundred 
tongues  wagged  all  at  once,  until  you  could  n't 
hear  yourself  think. 

But  one  of  the  lads,  who  had  not  taken  his 
eyes  from  me,  suddenly  saw  a  light.  He 
pointed  his  knife  straight  at  me  and  piped 
out  so  that  they  all  heard  it : 

"  I  know  you !  I  seen  yer  pitcher  in  the 
papers.  You  're  a  P'lice  Commissioner. 
You  're — you  're — Teddy  Roosevelt!  " 

If  a  bomb  had  fallen  into  the  meeting,  I 
doubt  if  the  effect  would  have  been  greater. 
A  silence  fell,  so  deep  that  you  would  have 
heard  a  pin  drop — where,  a  moment  before,  the 
noise  of  a  dray  going  over  the  pavement  would 
have  been  drowned  in  the  din.  Glancing  down 
the  table  where  the  little  shavers  sat,  I  saw  a 
stealthy  movement  under  cover,  and  the  eight 
stolen  pies  appeared  with  a  common  accord 
over  the  edge  and  were  replaced  as  suddenly 
as  they  had  gone! 

He  laughed,  when  I  told  him  of  it,  as  I  had 

[360] 


CHILDREN  TRUST  HIM 

seldom  seen  him  laugh,  and  said  it  was  a  great 
compliment.  And  so  it  was :  it  was  evidence  of 
the  respect  he  was  held  in  as  Police  Com- 
missioner. Twin  Island  told  the  other  end  of 
the  story,  and  it  was  even  better. 


[861] 


XV 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 


XV 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

I  SAID  I  would  not  meddle  with  the  Presi- 
dent's policies,  and  neither  will  I  from  the 
point  of  view  of  statecraft;  for  of  that  I 
know  less  than  nothing.  But  how  now,  looking 
at  them  through  the  man  I  have  tried  to  show 
you?  Do  his  "  policies  "  not  become  the  plain 
expression  of  his  character,  of  the  man?  Ask 
yourself  and  answer  the  question  whether  he 
has  "  made  good  "  the  promise  which  any  one 
not  wilfully  blind  could  see.  Lots  of  people 
were  uneasy  when  he  became  President.  It 
was  natural,  in  the  excitement  over  the  murder 
of  President  McKinley.  Roosevelt  was  young, 
he  was  hot-headed,  hasty,  things  were  going  to 
be  upset— that  was  what  we  heard.  Perhaps 
they  looked  back  and  saw  that  no  Vice-Presi- 
dent  had  ever  succeeded  who  did  not  dismiss 

[365] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  cabinet  of  his  dead  chief  and  set  up  for 
himself.  But  this  President  did  not  let  the  day 
pass,  upon  which  he  took  the  oath,  without  ask- 
ing McKinley's  advisers  to  stay  and  be  his, 
all  of  them.  It  was  politically  wise,  for  it  al- 
layed the  unrest.  But  it  was  something  beside 
that:  it  was  the  natural  thing  for  Roosevelt 
to  do.  He  knew  the  cabinet,  and  what  they 
could  do. 

"You  know  well  enough,"  he  said  once,  when 
we  were  speaking  of  it,  "  that  I  am  after  the 
thing  to  be  done.  It  is  the  fitness  of  the  tool  to 
do  the  work  I  am  concerned  about,  not  my  in- 
venting of  it.  What  does  that  matter?  " 

He  found  in  Attorney-General  Knox,  for 
instance,  a  corporation  lawyer  whose  very  ex- 
perience as  such  had  made  him  see  clearly  the 
unwisdom,  to  look  at  it  merely  from  the  point 
of  view  of  their  own  security,  of  the  arrogance 
that  lay  ill  concealed  at  the  bottom  of  the  deal- 
ings of  organized  wealth  with  the  rest  of  man- 
kind. And  splendidly  has  he  battled  for  the 
rights  of  us  all — theirs  and  ours.  The  utter 
mystery  to  me  is  that  corporate  wealth  has  not 
long  before  this  made  out  that  there  can  be  no 
worse  misfit  and  no  greater  peril  to  itself  in  a 

[366] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

government  of  the  people  than  to  have  the  feel- 
ing grow  that  money  can  buy  unfair  privilege. 
"  But  it  is  true,  and  always  has  been,"  says  my 
Wall  Street  neighbor  who  has  the  courage  of 
his  convictions.  Then,  if  that  be  so,  is  he  so 
blind  that  he  cannot  see  the  danger  of  it,  since 
the  very  soul  of  the  Republic  is  in  the  chal- 
lenge that  it  shall  not  be  true  forever;  that, 
with  every  just  premium  on  honest  industry, 
men  shall  have  somewhere  near  a  fair  chance 
at  the  start ;  that  they  shall  not  be  damned  into 
economic  slavery  any  more  than  into  political 
slavery?  Is  he  so  blind  that  he  cannot  see  that 
the  irrepressible  conflict  cannot  be  sidetracked 
by  any  subterfuge,  by  the  purchase  of  delega- 
tions, the  plotting  of  politicians,  the  defeat  of 
Presidents?  I  used  to  think  that  the  great 
captains  of  industry  must  be  the  wisest  of  men, 
and  so  indeed  they  need  be  in  their  special 
fields.  But  where  is  their  common  sense  that 
they  cannot  see  so  plain  a  thing? 

Unless,  indeed,  they  think  that  the  Republic 
is  a  mere  fake,  government  by  the  people  and 
of  the  people  and  for  the  people  a  fad,  a 
phrase  behind  which  to  plot  securely  for  a 
hundred  years  more, — life  with  no  other  mean- 

[367] 


THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 

ing  than  to  fill  pockets  and  belly  while  they 
last !  In  which  case  I  pity  them  from  the  bot- 
tom of  my  heart.  For  what  a  meaning  to  read 
into  life,  one  little  end  of  which  lies  within 
our  ken,  with  the  key  to  all  the  rest,  as  far  as 
we  are  able  to  grasp  it  here,  in  fair  dealing 
with  the  brother! 

I  have  said  that  I  speak  for  myself  in  these 
pages;  but  for  once  you  may  take  it  that  I 
speak  for  Theodore  Roosevelt  too.  That  is 
what  he  thinks.  That  is  the  underlying  thought 
of  his  oft-expressed  philosophy,  that  the  poor- 
est plan  for  an  American  to  act  upon  is  that 
of  "  some  men  down,"  and  the  safest  that  of 
"  all  men  up."  For,  whether  for  good  or  ill,  up 
we  go  or  down,  poor  and  rich,  white  or  black, 
all  of  us  together  in  the  end,  in  the  things 
that  make  for  real  manhood.  And  the  making 
of  that  manhood  and  the  bringing  of  it  to  the 
affairs  of  life  and  making  it  tell  there,  is  the 
business  of  the  Republic. 

How,  so  thinking,  could  he  have  taken  any 
other  attitude  than  he  has  on  the  questions  that 
seem  crowding  to  a  solution  these  days  be- 
cause there  is  at  last  a  man  at  the  head  who  will 
not  dodge,  but  deal  squarely  with  them  as  they 

[368] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

come?  How  should  he  have  "intended  in- 
sult "  to  the  South,  whose  blood  flowed  in  his 
mother's  veins,  when  he  bade  to  his  table  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  citizens  of  our  day,  by 
whose  company  at  tea  Queen  Victoria  thought 
herself  honored  because  he  represents  the  ef- 
fort, the  hope,  of  raising  a  whole  race  of  men 
— our  black-skinned  fellow-citizens — up  to  the 
grasp  of  what  citizenship  means?  And  where 
is  there  a  man  fool  enough  to  believe  that  the 
clamor  of  silly  reactionists  whom  history,  whom 
life,  have  taught  nothing,  should  move  him  one 
hair's-breadth  from  the  thing  he  knows  is  right 
— even  from  "  the  independent  and  fearless 
course  he  has  followed  in  his  attempt  to  secure 
decent  and  clean  officials  in  the  South"?  I 
am  quoting  from  the  Montgomery  (Alabama) 
"  Times,"  a  manly  Democratic  newspaper  that 
is  not  afraid  of  telling  the  truth.  I  have  just 
now  read  the  clear,  patient,  and  statesmanlike 
answer  of  Carl  Schurz  to  the  question,  "  Can 
the  South  solve  the  negro  problem? "  He 
thinks  it  can  if  it  will  follow  its  best  impulses 
and  its  clearest  sense,  not  the  ranting  of  those 
who  would  tempt  it  to  moral  and  economic  ruin 
with  the  old  ignorant  cry  of  "  Keep  the  nig- 

[369] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ger  down!  "  And  I  know  that  the  South  has 
no  truer  and  fairer  friend  in  that  cause  than 
the  President,  who  believes  in  "  all  men  up," 
and  who  with  genuine  statesmanship  looks 
beyond  the  strife  and  the  prejudice  of  to-day 
to  the  harvest-time  that  is  coming. 

"  On  this  whole  question,"  he  sighed,  when 
we  had  threshed  it  over  one  day,  "  we  are  in 
a  back  eddy.  I  don't  know  how  we  are  going 
to  get  out,  or  when.  The  one  way  I  know  that 
does  not  lead  out  is  for  us  to  revert  to  a  condi- 
tion of  semi-slavery.  That  leads  us  farther 
in,  because  it  does  not  stop  there/' 

Let  the  South  ponder  it  well,  for  it  is  true. 
And  let  it  be  glad  that  there  is  a  man  in  the 
White  House  to  voice  its  better  self.  "A 
nation  cannot  remain  half  free  and  half  slave  " 
or  half  peon.  And  it  can  never  throw  off  its 
industrial  fetters  and  take  the  place  to  which 
it  is  entitled  imtil  it  is  willing  to  build  upon 
the  dignijby  of  manhood  and  of  labor,  of  which 
serfdom,  by  whatever  name,  is  the  flat  denial. 
"  Truly,  the  world  moves  with  giant  strides 
once  the  policy  of  postponement  is  sidetracked 
and  notice  is  served  that  the  man  at  the  throttle 
is  willing  to  give  ear.  I  wonder  now  how  many 

[370] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

of  us,  when  it  comes  right  down  to  hard  facts, 
consider  government,  the  Republic,  the  general 
scheme  of  the  world,  a  kind  of  modus  Vivendi 
to  make  sure  we  are  not  interfered  with  while 
we  are  at  the  game— never  mind  the  rest?  But 
yesterday  the  shout  arose  that  the  President 
was  inviting  "  labor  men  "  to  break  bread  at  the 
White  House — white  men,  these.  WeD,  why 
not  labor  men,  if  they  are  otherwise  fit  com- 
panions for  the  President  of  the  United 
States?  That  these  were,  no  one  questioned. 
It  was  at  that  luncheon,  I  suppose,  that  one 
of  them  made  the  remark  that  at  last  there 
was  a  hearing  for  him  and  his  fellows.  I  have 
forgotten  the  precise  occasion,  but  I  remember 
the  President's  pregnant  answer: 

"  Yes!  The  White  House  door,  while  I  am 
here,  shall  swing  open  as  easily  for  the  labor 
man  as  for  the  capitalist,  and  no  easier." 

It  seems  as  if  it  was  in  the  same  week  that 
the  President  had  been  denounced  in  labor 
meetings  as  "  unfriendly  "  because  he  would 
not  let  union  rules  supersede  United  States  law 
in  the  office  of  the  public  printer.  Only  a  little 
while  before,  resolutions  of  organized  labor  had 
denounced  him  as  "  unfair  "  because  he  had 

[371] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

opposed  mob-rule  with  rifles  in  an  Arizona 
mining  dispute,  and  the  editors  of  "  organs  " 
that  had  not  yet  got  through  denouncing  him 
as  a  time-server  because  of  his  action  in  the 
anthracite  coal  strike  were  having  a  hard  and 
bewildering  time  of  it.  How  many  of  their 
readers  they  succeeded  in  mixing  up  beside 
themselves,  I  don't  know.  Some,  no  doubt ;  for 
even  so  groundless  a  lie  as  this,  that  President 
Roosevelt  had  jumped  Leonard  Wood  over 
four  hundred  and  fifty  veteran  soldiers  to  a 
major-generalship  because  he  was  his  friend, 
found  believers  when  it  was  repeated  day  after 
day  by  the  newspapers  that  cared  even  less  for 
the  four  hundred  and  fifty  veterans  than  they 
did  for  Leonard  Wood,  merely  using  him  as  a 
convenient  screen  from  behind  which  to  hit 
Roosevelt.  Whereas,  the  truth  is  that  Gen- 
eral Wood  was  not  "  jumped  "  a  single  num- 
ber by  his  friend,  but  came  up  for  confirma- 
tion in  the  regular  routine  of  promotion  by 
seniority  of  rank,  all  the  jumping  having  been 
done  years  before  by  President  McKinley  for 
cause,  and  heartily  applauded  by  the  American 
people.  Of  all  this  his  defamers  were  per- 
fectly well  aware ;  and  so  they  must  have  been 

[372] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

of  the  facts  in  the  labor  situation  of  which  they 
tried  to  make  capital,  if  I  may  use  so  odd  a 
term.  It  was  just  as  simple  as  all  the  rest  of 
President  Roosevelt's  doings. 

"  Finance,  tariff,"  he  said  to  me  once, — 
"  these  are  important.  But  the  question  of 
the  relations  of  capital  and  labor  is  vital.  Your 
children  and  mine  will  be  happy  in  this  country 
of  ours,  or  the  reverse,  according  to  whether 
the  decent  man  in  1950  feels  friendly  toward 
the  other  decent  man  whether  he  is  a  wage- 
worker  or  not.  '  I  am  for  labor,'  or  '  I  am  for 
capital,'  substitutes  something  else  for  the  im- 
mutable laws  of  righteousness.  The  one  and 
the  other  would  let  the  class  man  in,  and  letting 
him  in  is  the  one  thing  that  will  most  quickly 
eat  out  the  heart  of  the  Republic.  I  am  neither 
for  labor  nor  for  capital,  but  for  the  decent 
man  against  the  selfish  and  indecent  man  who 
will  not  act  squarely." 

To  a  President  of  that  mind  came  the  coal- 
strike  question  in  October,  1902,  with  its  de- 
mand for  action  in  a  new  and  untried  field — 
a  perilous  field  for  a  man  with  political  as- 
pirations, that  was  made  clear  without  de- 
lay. Then,  if  ever,  was  the  time  for  the  policy 

[373] 


THEODOUE  ROOSEVELT 

of  postponement,  had  his  personal  interests 
weighed  heavier  in  the  scale  than  the  public 
good.  To  me,  sitting  by  and  watching  the 
strife  of  passions  aroused  all  over  the  land, 
it  brought  a  revelation  of  the  need  of  charity 
for  the  neighbor  who  does  not  know.  From 
the  West,  where  they  burn  soft  coal,  and  could 
know  nothing  of  the  emergency,  but  where 
they  had  had  their  own  troubles  with  the 
miners,  came  counsel  to  let  things  alone.  Men 
who  thought  I  had  the  President's  ear  sent 
messages  of  caution.  "  Go  slow,"  was  their 
burden;  "  tell  him  not  to  be  hasty,  not  to  in- 
terfere." While  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
cities,  where  coal  was  twelve  dollars  a  ton,  with 
every  bin  empty  and  winter  at  the  door,  such  a 
cry  of  dread  went  up  as  no  one  who  heard  it 
ever  wants  to  hear  again.  From  my  own  city, 
with  its  three  million  toilers,  Mayor  Low  tele- 
graphed to  the  President: 

I  cannot  emphasize  too  strongly  the  immense  in- 
justice of  the  existing  coal  situation  to  millions  of 
innocent  people.  The  welfare  of  a  large  section  of 
the  country  imperatively  demands  the  immediate  re- 
sumption of  anthracite  coal  mining.  In  the  name  of 
the  City  of  New  York  I  desire  to  protest  through 
[374] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

you,  against  the  continuance  of  the  existing  situation, 
which,  if  prolonged,  involves,  at  the  very  least,  the  cer- 
tainty of  great  suffering  and  heavy  loss  to  the  in- 
habitants of  this  city,  in  common  with  many  others. 

Governor  Crane  of  Massachusetts  came  on 
to  Washington  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  East- 
ern cities,  whose  plight,  if  anything,  was  worse. 
The  miners  stood  upon  their  rights.  Organ- 
ized capital  scouted  interference  defiantly, 
threatening  disaster  to  the  Republican  party  if 
the  President  stepped  in.  The  cry  of  the  cities 
swelled  into  a  wail  of  anguish  and  despair,  and 
still  the  mines  were  idle,  the  tracks  of  the 
coal  roads  blocked  for  miles  with  empty  cars. 
In  the  midst  of  it  all  the  "  hasty  "  man  in  the 
White  House  wrote  in  reply  to  my  anxious 
inquiry : 

"  I  am  slowly  going  on,  step  by  step,  work- 
ing within  my  limited  range  of  powers  and  en- 
deavoring neither  to  shirk  any  responsibilities 
nor  yet  to  be  drawn  into  such  hasty  and  violent 
action  as  almost  invariably  provokes  reaction." 

Long  after  it  was  over,  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  Moody  told  me  of  what  was  happening 
then  in  Washington. 

"  I  remember  the  President  sitting  with  his 

[376] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

game  leg  in  a  chair  while  the  doctors  dressed 
it,"  he  said  (it  was  after  the  accident  in  Massa- 
chusetts in  which  the  President's  coach  was 
smashed  and  the  secret  service  man  on  the 
driver's  seat  killed) .  "It  hurt,  and  now  and 
then  he  would  wince  a  bit,  while  he  discussed 
the  strike  and  the  appeals  for  help  that  grew 
more  urgent  with  every  passing  hour.  The 
outlook  was  grave;  it  seemed  as  if  the  cost  of 
interference  might  be  political  death.  I  saw 
how  it  tugged  at  him,  just  when  he  saw  chances 
of  serving  his  country  which  he  had  longed  for 
all  the  years,  to  meet — this.  It  was  human  na- 
ture to  halt.  He  halted  long  enough  to  hear  it 
all  out:  the  story  of  the  suffering  in  the  big 
coast  cities,  of  schools  closing,  hospitals  with- 
out fuel,  of  the  poor  shivering  in  their  homes. 
Then  he  set  his  face  grimly  and  said: 

'  Yes,  I  will  do  it.  I  suppose  that  ends  me ; 
but  it  is  right,  and  I  will  do  it.' 

"I  don't  agree  with  labor  in  all  its  demands," 
added  the  Secretary.  "  I  think  it  is  unreason- 
able in  some  of  them,  or  some  of  its  represen- 
tatives are.  But  in  the  main  line  it  is  eternally 
right,  and  it  is  only  by  owning  it  and  helping 
it  to  its  rights  that  we  can  successfully  choke 

[376] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

off  the  exorbitant  demands."  And  in  my  soul 
I  said  amen,  and  was  glad  that  with  such 
problems  to  solve  the  President  had  found  such 
friends  to  help. 

Many  times,  during  the  anxious  days  that 
followed,  I  thought  with  wonder  of  the  pur- 
blind folk  who  called  Roosevelt  hasty.  For 
it  seemed  sometimes  as  if  the  insolence  of  the 
coal  magnates  were  meant  to  provoke  him  to 
anger.  But  no  word  betrayed  what  he  felt, 
what  thousands  of  his  fellow-citizens  felt  as 
they  read  the  reports  of  the  conferences  at  the 
White  House.  The  most  consummate  states- 
manship steered  us  safely  between  reefs  that 
beset  the  parley  at  every  point,  and  the  coun- 
try was  saved  from  a  calamity  the  extent  and 
consequences  of  which  it  is  hard  to  imagine. 
Judge  Gray,  the  chairman  of  the  commission 
that  settled  the  strike,  said,  when  it  was  all 
history,  that  the  crisis  confronting  the  Presi- 
dent "  was  more  grave  and  threatening  than 
any  since  the  Civil  War,  threatening  not  only 
the  comfort  and  health,  but  the  safety  and 
good  order  of  the  nation."  And  he  gave  to  the 
President  unstinted  praise  for  what  he  did. 
The  London  "  Times,"  speaking  for  all  Eu- 

[377] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

rope  in  hailing  the  entrance  of  government 
upon  a  new  field  full  of  great  possibilities,  said 
editorially,  "In  the  most  quiet  and  unobtrusive 
manner,  President  Roosevelt  has  done  a  very 
big  thing,  and  an  entirely  new  thing." 

He  alone  knew  at  what  cost.  Invalid,  un- 
dergoing daily  agony  as  the  doctors  scraped 
the  bone  of  his  injured  leg,  he  wrote  to  the 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  who  sent  him  "  the 
thanks  of  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  the 
country  " : 

"  Yes,  we  have  put  it  through.  But,  hea- 
vens and  earth!  it  has  been  a  struggle." 

It  was  the  nearest  I  ever  knew  him  to  come 
to  showing  the  strain  he  had  been  under. 

The  story  of  the  strike,  and  of  how  it  was 
settled  by  the  President's  commission,  none  of 
us  has  forgotten.  That  commission  did  not 
make  permanent  peace  between  capital  and 
labor,  but  it  took  a  longer  stride  toward  mak- 
ing a  lasting  basis  for  such  a  peace  than  we  had 
taken  yet;  and  I  can  easily  understand  the 
President's  statement  to  me  that,  if  there  were 
nothing  else  to  his  credit,  he  would  be  content 
to  go  out  of  office  upon  that  record  alone.  For 
it  was  truly  a  service  to  render.  I  had  sup- 

[378] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

posed  that  we  all  understood  until  I  ran  up 
against  a  capitalistic  friend  of  the  "  irrecon- 
cilable "  stripe.  He  complained  bitterly  of  the 
President's  mixing  in;  had  he  kept  his  hands 
off,  the  strike  would  have  settled  itself  in  a  very 
little  while;  the  miners  would  have  gone  back 
to  work.  I  said  that  I  saw  no  sign  of  it. 

No,  he  supposed  not;  but  it  was  so,  all  the 
same.  "  We  had  their  leaders  all  bought,"  said 
he. 

He  lied,  to  be  plain  about  it,  for  John  Mitch- 
ell and  his  men  had  proved  abundantly  that 
they  were  not  that  kind.  And,  besides,  he  could 
not  speak  for  the  mine-operators;  he  was  not 
one  of  them.  But  the  thing  was  not  for  whom 
he  spoke,  but  what  it  was  he  said,  with  such 
callous  unconcern.  Think  of  it  for  a  mo- 
ment and  tell  me  which  was,  when  all  is  said 
and  done,  the  greater  danger:  the  strike,  with 
all  it  might  have  stood  for,  or  the  cynicism 
that  framed  that  speech?  The  country  might 
outlive  the  horrors  of  a  coal-famine  in  mid- 
winter, but  this  other  thing  would  kill  as  sure 
as  slow  poison.  Mob-rule  was  not  to  be  feared 
like  that. 

There  comes  to  my  mind,  by  contrast,  some- 

[379] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

thing  John  Mitchell  said  to  the  Southwestern 
miners'  convention,  after  the  strike,  that  shows 
the  quality  of  the  man  and  of  his  leadership. 

"  Some  men,"  he  said,  "  who  own  the  mines 
think  they  own  the  men,  too;  and  some  men 
who  work  in  the  mines  think  they  own  them. 
Both  are  wrong.  The  mines  belong  to  the 
owners.  You  belong  to  yourselves." 

Upon  those  who  said  that  the  President  had 
surrendered  the  country,  horse,  foot,  and  dra- 
goons, to  organized  labor,  his  action  a  few 
months  later,  in  sending  troops  within  the  hour 
in  which  they  were  demanded  to  prevent  vio- 
lence by  miners  in  Arizona,  ought  to  have  put  a 
quietus.  But  it  did  not;  they  gibbered  away 
as  before.  The  reason  is  plain:  they  did  not 
themselves  believe  what  they  said.  The  Miller 
case  followed  hard  upon  it,  with  no  better  ef- 
fect. But  the  Miller  case  is  so  eloquent  both 
of  the  President's  stand  upon  this  most  urgent 
of  all  questions  in  our  day,  and  of  his  diplo- 
macy,—which  is  nothing  else  than  his  honest 
effort,  with  all  the  light  he  can  get  upon  a 
thing,  to  do  the  right  as  he  sees  it, — that  it  is 
worth  setting  down  here  as  part  of  his  record, 
and  a  part  to  be  remembered. 

[380] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

Miller  was  an  assistant  foreman  in  the  gov- 
ernment bookbindery.  He  was  discharged  by 
the  public  printer,  upon  the  demand  of  organ- 
ized labor,  on  charges  of  "  flagrant  non-union- 
ism," he  having  been  expelled  from  Local 
Union  No.  4  of  the  International  Brotherhood 
of  Bookbinders.  His  discharge  was  in  defiance 
of  the  civil  service  laws,  and  the  matter  having 
come  before  the  President,  he  ordered  that  he 
be  reinstated.  In  doing  so  he  pointed  to  this 
finding  of  the  anthracite  coal  strike  commis- 
sion which  organized  labor  had  accepted : 

It  is  adjudged  and  awarded  that  no  person  shall 
be  refused  employment  or  in  any  way  discriminated 
against  on  account  of  membership  or  non-member- 
ship in  any  labor  organization,  and  that  there  shall 
be  no  discrimination  against  or  interference  with  any 
employe  who  is  not  a  member  of  any  labor  organization 
by  members  of  such  organization. 

"  It  is,  of  course,"  was  the  President's  com- 
ment, "  mere  elementary  decency  to  require 
that  all  the  government  departments  shall  be 
handled  in  accordance  with  the  principle  thus 
clearly  and  fearlessly  enunciated."  But  there 
are  people  who  do  not  understand,  on  both 
sides  of  the  line.  Seventy-two  unions  in  the 

[381] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Central  Labor  Union  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia "  resolved "  that  to  reinstate  Miller 
was  "  an  unfriendly  act."  The  big  leaders, 
including  Mr.  Gompers  and  Mr.  Mitchell, 
came  to  plead  with  the  President.  Miller  was 
not  fit,  they  said. 

That  was  another  matter,  replied  the  Presi- 
dent. He  would  find  out.  As  to  Miller's  be- 
ing a  non-union  man,  the  law  he  was  sworn  to 
enforce  recognized  no  such  distinction.  "  I 
am  President,"  he  said,  "  of  all  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  without  regard  to  creed,  color, 
birthplace,  occupation,  or  social  distinction.  In 
the  employment  and  dismissal  of  men  in  the 
government  service  I  can  no  more  recognize  the 
fact  that  a  man  does  or  does  not  belong  to  a 
union  as  being  for  or  against  him  than  I  can 
recognize  the  fact  that  he  is  a  Protestant  or  a 
Catholic,  a  Jew  or  a  Gentile,  as  being  for  or 
against  him." 

The  newspapers  did  not  tell  us  that  the  White 
House  rang  with  applause,  as  did  Clarendon 
Hall  on  that  other  occasion  when  he  met  the 
labor  men  as  a  police  commissioner.  I  do  not 
know  whether  it  did  or  not,  for  I  was  not  there. 
But  if  in  their  hearts  there  was  no  response 

[382] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

to  that  sentiment,  they  did  not  represent  the 
best  in  their  cause  or  in  their  people;  for  of 
nothing  am  I  better  persuaded  than  that,  as 
the  President  said  in  his  Labor  Day  speech 
at  Syracuse,  "  Our  average  fellow-citizen  is  a 
sane  and  healthy  man  who  believes  in  decency 
and  has  a  wholesome  mind."  And  that  was  the 
gospel  of  sanity  and  decency  and  wholesome- 
ness  all  rolled  into  one. 

Well,  these  are  his  policies.  Can  any  one 
who  has  followed  me  so  far  in  my  effort  to 
show  what  Theodore  Roosevelt  is,  and  why  he 
is  what  he  is,  conceive  of  his  having  any  other? 
And  is  there  an  American  worthy  of  the  name 
who  would  want  him  to  have  any  other?  Cuba 
is  free,  and  she  thanks  President  Roosevelt  for 
her  freedom.  But  for  his  insistence  that  the 
nation's  honor  was  bound  up  in  the  comple- 
tion of  the  work  his  Rough-Riders  began  at 
Las  Guasimas  and  on  San  Juan  hill,  a  cold 
conspiracy  of  business  greed  would  have  left 
her  in  the  lurch,  to  fall  by  and  by  reluctantly 
into  our  arms,  bankrupt  and  helpless,  while  the 
sneer  of  the  cynics  that  we  were  plucking  that 
plum  for  ourselves  would  have  been  justified. 
The  Venezuela  imbroglio  that  threatened  the 

[383] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

peace  of  the  world  has  added,  instead,  to  the 
prestige  of  The  Hague  Court  of  Arbitration 
through  the  wisdom  and  lofty  public  spirit  of 
the  American  President.  The  man  who  was 
called  hasty  and  unsafe  has  done  more  for  the 
permanent  peace  of  the  world  than  all  the 
diplomats  of  the  day.  The  Panama  Canal  is 
at  last  to  be  a  fact,  with  benefit  which  no  one 
can  reckon  to  the  commerce  of  the  world,  of  our 
land,  and  most  of  all  to  the  Southern  States, 
that  are  trying  to  wake  up  from  their  long 
sleep.  I  confess  that  the  half-hearted  criti- 
cism I  hear  of  the  way  of  the  administration 
with  Panama  provokes  in  me  a  desire  to  laugh ; 
for  it  reminds  me  of  the  way  the  case  was  put 
to  me  by  a  man,  than  whom  there  is  no  one  in 
the  United  States  who  should  know  better. 

"  It  is  just,"  he  said,  "  as  if  a  fellow  were  to 
try  to  hold  you  up,  and  you  were  to  wrench  the 
gun  away  from  him,  so  " — with  an  expressive 
gesture;  "  and  then  some  bystander  should  cry 
out,  '  Oh,  the  poor  fellow !  you  've  taken  away 
his  gun !  Maybe  he  would  n't  have  shot  at  all ; 
and  then  it  is  his  gun,  anyway,  and  you  such  a 
big  fellow,  and  he  so  small.  Oh,  shame ! ' ' 

We  can  smile  now,  but  Assistant  Secretary 

[884] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

of  State  Loomis  lifted  the  curtain  enough,  the 
other  day,  to  give  us  a  glimpse  of  what  might 
have  been,  had  the  Colombian  plot  to  confiscate 
the  French  canal  company's  forty  millions  of 
property,  when  the  concession  lapsed  in  an- 
other year,  been  allowed  to  hatch.  Half  the 
world  might  have  been  at  war  then.  I  think 
we  may  all  well  be  glad,  as  he  truly  said,  that 
"  there  was  in  Washington,  upon  this  truly 
fateful  occasion,  a  man  who  possessed  the  in- 
sight, the  knowledge,  the  spirit,  and  the  cour- 
age to  seize  the  opportunity  to  strike  a  blow, 
the  results  of  which  can  be  fraught  only  with 
peace  and  good  to  the  whole  world." 

I  am  not  a  jingo ;  but  when  some  things  hap- 
pen I  just  have  to  get  up  and  cheer.  The  way 
our  modern  American  diplomacy  goes  about 
things  is  one  of  them.  You  remember,  don't 
you,  when  the  captains  were  conferring  at 
Tientsin  about  going  to  the  relief  of  the 
ministers  there  that  were  besieged  in  their  em- 
bassies, and  the  little  jealous  rivalries  of  the 
powers  would  not  let  them  get  anywhere,  the 
French  and  Russians  pulling  one  way,  the  Ger- 
mans another,  the  British  another,  and  so  on, 
how  Captain  McCalla  got  up  and  said: 

[385] 


THEODORE'  ROOSEVELT 

"  Well,  gentlemen,  you  have  talked  this  mat- 
ter over  pretty  thoroughly  and  have  come  to 
no  decision.  And  now  I  will  tell  you  what  I 
am  going  to  do.  My  minister  is  in  danger,  and 
I  am  going  to  Peking."  Wherefore  they  all 
went. 

I  had  to  cheer  then,  and  I  have  to  give  a 
cheer  off  and  on  yet  for  the  man  at  the  helm, 
and  to  thank  God  that  he  sent  me  over  the  sea 
to  cast  in  my  lot  with  a  country  and  with  a 
people  that  do  not  everlastingly  follow  worm- 
eaten  precedent,  but  are  young  enough  and 
strong  enough  and  daring  enough  to  make  it 
when  need  be. 

"  But  about  his  financial  policy,  about  his 
war  upon  the  trusts,  the  corporations,  which 
they  say  is  going  to  defeat  him  for  reelection, 
you  have  said  nothing.  You  have  offered  no  de- 
fense." Well,  good  friend,  if  you  have  found 
nothing  in  these  pages  that  answers  your 
question,  I  am  afraid  there  is  little  use  in  my 
saying  anything  now  on  the  subject.  Defense 
I  have  not  offered,  because,  in  the  first  place, 
I  am  quite  unable  to  see  that  there  is  need  of 
any.  If  there  were,  I  should  think  the  coal 
strike  experience,  or,  later  yet,  the  disclosures 

[386] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

in  the  ship -building  trust  case  as  to  what  it  is 
that  ails  Wall  Street,  would  have  given  every- 
body all  the  information  he  could  wish.  The 
President  is  not,  Congress  is  not,  making  war 
upon  corporations,  upon  capital.  They  are 
trying  to  hold  them — through  publicity,  by 
compelling  them  to  obey  the  laws  their  smaller 
competitors  have  to  bow  to,  and  in  any  other 
lawful  and  reasonable  way — to  such  respon- 
sibility that  they  shall  not  become  a  power 
full  of  peril  to  the  people  and  to  themselves. 
For  that  might  mean  much  and  grave 
mischief, — would  mean,  indeed,  unless  the 
people  were  willing  to  abdicate,  which  I  think 
they  are  not.  That  mischief  I  should  like  to 
see  averted. 

"  It  is  not  designed  to  restrict  or  control  the 
fullest  liberty  of  legitimate  business  action," — 
I  quote  from  the  President's  last  message, — 
and  none  such  can  follow.  "  Publicity  can  do 
no  harm  to  the  honest  corporation.  The  only 
corporation  that  has  cause  to  dread  it  is  the 
corporation  which  shrinks  from  the  light, 
and  about  the  welfare  of  such  we  need  not  be 
over-sensitive.  The  work  of  the  Department 
of  Commerce  and  Labor  has  been  conditioned 

[387] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

upon  this  theory,  of  securing  fair  treatment 
alike  for  labor  and  capital." 

That  is  all,  and  nothing  has  been  done  that  is 
not  in  that  spirit.  Perhaps  it  is  natural  that  a 
corporation  like  the  Standard  Oil  Company, 
which  has  amassed  enormous  wealth  through 
a  monopoly  that  enabled  it  to  dictate  its  own 
freight  rates  to  the  utter  annihilation  of  its 
competitors,  should  object  to  have  the  govern- 
ment step  in  and  try  to  curtail  unfair  profits. 
Perhaps  it  is  natural  for  it  to  object  to  the  anti- 
rebate  law,  though  it  comes  too  late  to  check  its 
greed. 

Perhaps  it  is  natural  for  some  speculating 
concerns  to  wish  to  keep  their  business  to  them- 
selves ;  but  it  seems  to  me  we  have  seen  enough 
swindling  exposed,  to  be  plain  about  it,  these 
last  few  months,  to  make  a  good  many  people 
wish  there  had  been  some  way  of  finding  out 
the  facts  before  it  was  too  late.  That,  again, 
is  all  there  is  to  that.  Nobody  is  to  be  hurt, 
nobody  can  be  hurt,  except  the  one  that  de- 
serves to  be.  I  have  faith  enough  in  the  Amer- 
ican people  to  believe  that  the  time  has  not  yet 
come,  and  will  not  soon  come,  when  the  specu- 
lators can  defeat  a  man  running  for  the  Presi- 

[388] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

dency  on  the  platform  of  an  equal  chance  to  all 
and  special  favors  to  none.  If  they  can,  it  is 
time  we  knew  it. 

And,  in  the  next  place,  I  have  not  the  least 
idea  in  the  world  that  the  men  who  are  plotting 
against  the  President  do,  or  ever  did,  seriously 
question  the  fairness  of  his  policy.  It  is  him 
they  do  not  want.  Let  a  witness  that  is  cer- 
tainly on  the  inside  tell  why.  I  quote  from 
an  editorial  in  the  "  Wall  Street  Journal  "— 
another  newspaper  that  dares  to  tell  the  truth, 
it  seems: 

It  is  not  because  President  Roosevelt  is  antago- 
nistic to  capital,  or  a  partner  in  that  hatred  of  wealth 
which  is  so  odious  and  so  threatening,  that  certain 
financial  interests,  expert  in  the  manipulation  of  the 
markets,  are  scheming  to  prevent  his  election  to  a 
second  term.  They  know  very  well  that  he  is  no 
enemy  to  capital.  They  know  that  by  birthright, 
by  education  and  by  long  political  training  he  is  a 
supporter  of  sound  money,  an  advocate  of  a  protec- 
tive tariff,  a  firm  upholder  of  the  rights  of  property. 
They  know  that  he  is  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  lead 
in  an  assault  on  capital  lawfully  applied  to  the  devel- 
opment of  the  commercial  enterprises  of  the  country. 
They  have  no  fear  that  he  will  be  led  by  ambition  or 
impulse  into  paths  of  socialism,  or  that  he  will,  for 
one  moment,  give  the  authority  of  his  name  and 

[389] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

office  to  the  aid  of  organized  labor  in  any  movement 
to  crush  out  competition,  and  thus  to  establish  a  mo- 
nopoly more  destructive  to  the  interests  of  the  coun- 
try than  even  the  most  corrupt,  oppressive,  and  pow- 
erful trust. 

What,  then,  is  the  reason  why  these  financial  in- 
terests are  scheming  to  defeat  him?  The  answer  is 
plain. 

They  cannot  control  him. 

All  efforts  to  control  him  through  his  ambition 
have  failed.  Any  attempt  to  control  him  by  grosser 
forms  of  bribery  would,  of  course,  be  useless.  Ef- 
fort to  move  him  by  sophistical  arguments  framed 
by  clever  corporation  lawyers  into  departure  from 
the  paths  of  duty  and  law  have  not  succeeded.  He 
is  a  friend  of  capital.  He  is  a  friend  of  labor.  But 
he  is  no  slave  of  either. 

And  so  those  Wall  Street  interests  have  de- 
cided that  he  is  to  be  driven  out  of  office.  They 
will  prevent  his  renomination,  if  they  can.  If 
not,  they  will  try  to  beat  him  at  the  polls  with 
money.  "All  the  money  is  to  be  on  the  other 
side  this  year."  They  made  the  beginning  in 
New  York  this  last  fall.  It  is  no  secret  that 
enormous  amounts  of  money  were  thrown  into 
the  campaign  in  the  last  two  weeks  to  turn  the 
election.  Low  and  reform  were  sacrificed. 

[390] 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  POLICIES 

Next  it  is  to  be  Roosevelt.    "  Money  talks,"  is 
their  creed.     Other  arguments  are  wasted. 

Well,  as  to  that,  we  shall  see.    There  is  still 
the  American  people  to  hear  from. 


[3911 


XVI 
A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 


XVI 
A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

I  HAVE  told  you  what  Theodore  Roose- 
velt is  like  as  I  see  him.  I  have  told  of 
the  man,  the  friend,  the  husband  and  fa- 
ther, because  back  of  his  public  career,  of  his 
great  office,  I  see  himself  always;  and  to  my 
mind  so  it  must  be  that  you  will  take  him 
to  your  heart  as  the  President,  also,  and  find 
the  key  to  all  he  is  and  stands  for.  Knowing 
him  as  he  really  is,  you  cannot  help  trusting 
him.  I  would  have  everybody  feel  that  way 
toward  him  who  does  not  do  so  already ;  for  we 
are  facing  much  too  serious  times,  you  and 
he  and  all  of  us,  to  be  honestly  at  odds 
where  we  should  pull  together.  As  for  the 
others  who  are  not  honestly  at  odds  with  him, 
who  are  "  working  for  their  own  pockets  all 
the  time,"  who  are  kin  to  the  malefactors  who 

[395] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

burned  up  four  thousand  Christmas-trees  in 
Philadelphia  the  other  day  to  reduce  the  sup- 
ply and  force  up  the  price  of  the  remaining 
ones — what  sweet  Christmas  joys  must  have 
been  theirs! — I  care  nothing  for  them.  I 
would  as  lief  have  them  all  in  front  and  within 
fighting  reach  from  the  start.  They  belong 
there,  anyhow. 

And  now,  what  does  it  all  mean?  Why  have 
I  written  it?  Just  to  boom  Roosevelt  for  the 
Presidency  in  the  election  that  comes  soon? 
No,  not  that.  I  shall  rejoice  to  see  him  elected, 
and  I  shall  know  that  never  was  my  vote  put 
to  better  use  for  my  country  than  when  I  cast 
it  for  him.  To  have  him  beaten  by  the  Christ- 
mas-tree cabal  would  argue  an  unpreparedness, 
an  unfitness  to  grapple  with  the  real  problems 
of  the  day,  that  might  well  dishearten  the  pa- 
triot. But  this  not  because  of  himself,  much 
as  I  like  to  hear  the  whole  country  shout  for  the 
friend  I  love,  but  because  of  what  he  stands 
for.  It  matters  less  that  Theodore  Roosevelt 
is  President,  but  it  matters  a  good  deal  that 
the  things  prevail  which  he  represents  in  the 
nation's  life.  It  never  mattered  more  than  at 
this  present  day  of  ours — right  now.  Yester- 

[396'] 


A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

day  I  spoke  in  a  New  England  town,  a  pros- 
perous, happy  town,  where  the  mills  were  all 
running,  property  booming,  the  people  busy; 
but  there  was  a  fly  in  the  ointment,  after  all. 
It  came  out  when  I  expressed  my  pleasure  at 
what  I  had  seen. 

"  Yes,"  they  said,  "  we  are  all  that;  and  we 
would  be  perfectly  happy  but  for  the  meanest 
politics  that  ever  disgraced  a  town." 

When  I  settled  into  my  seat  in  the  train  to 
think  it  over,  this  paragraph  from  a  sermon  on 
"  Money -madness  "  stared  me  in  the  face — 
curiously,  it  was  preached  by  the  pastor  of  the 
biggest  money-king  of  them  all,  so  the  paper 
said : 

In  these  days  there  is  such  a  hunt  after  wealth  that 
the  efforts  of  our  best  men  are  withdrawn  from  the 
public  service.  The  men  of  the  stamp  of  Jefferson,  of 
Washington,  who  gave  themselves  to  their  country, 
are  not  now  to  be  found  in  legislative  halls ;  they  are 
corporation  lawyers. 

And  before  I  had  time  to  run  over  in  my 
mind  the  shining  exceptions  I  knew,  the  Roots, 
the  Tafts,  the  Knoxes,  the  Garfields,  and  the 
rest  of  them,  and  who  only  brought  out  more 

[39T] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

sharply  the  truth  of  the  general  statement,  in 
comes  my  neighbor  with  whom  just  now  I 
fought  shoulder  to  shoulder  against  Tammany 
in  New  York,  as  good  and  clean  and  honest 
a  fellow  as  I  know,  and  tells  me  it  is  all  over. 
Clean  discouraged  is  he,  and  he  will  never 
spend  his  time  and  money  in  fighting  for  de- 
cency again. 

"  What 's  the  use?  "  says  he.  '  It  is  all  waste 
and  foolishness;  and,  after  all,  how  do  I  lose 
by  some  one  getting  what  he  wants  and  pay- 
ing for  it?  I  know  this  blackmailing  business, 
a  wide-open  town,  and  all  that, — I  know  it  is 
wrong  when  you  come  to  high  principle;  but 
we  live  in  a  practical,  every-day  world.  Let 
us  live  and  let  live.  I  get  what  I  want,  the 
other  fellow  gets  what  he  wants;  and  if  it  is 
worth  my  paying  the  price  to  get  it,  how  am 
I  hurt?  Is  n't  it  better  than  all  this  stew  for 
nothing?  Tammany  's  in  and  back,  and  we 
will  never  win  again.  I  am  done  with  reform." 

He  is  not;  I  know  it,  for  I  know  him.  He 
is  just  tired,  and  he  will  get  over  it.  But  he 
speaks  for  a  good  many  who  may  not  get  over 
it  so  easily,  and  that  is  exactly  what  Tam- 
many banks  upon.  It  is  what  the  enemy  hopes 

[398] 


A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

for  in  all  days :  that  he  may  tire  out  the  good, 
convince  them  that  the  game  is  n't  worth  the 
candle.  And  right  here  is  the  immense  value 
of  the  man  whom  you  cannot  tire  out,  who 
will  stand  like  a  rock  for  the  homely  virtues, 
for  the  Ten  Commandments,  in  good  and  evil 
report,  and  refuse  to  budge.  For,  though  men 
sneer  at  him  and  call  him  a  grand-stand  player, 
as  they  will,  the  time  will  come  when  he  will 
convince  them  that  there  is  something  more 
important  than  winning  to-day  or  to-morrow, 
where  a  principle  is  at  stake ;  that  the  function 
of  the  Republic,  of  government  of  the  people, 
shall,  please  God,  yet  be  to  make  high  prin- 
ciple the  soul  and  hope  of  the  practical  every- 
day world,  even  if  it  takes  time  to  do  it;  and 
that  it  is  worth  losing  all  our  lives  long,  with 
the  lives  thrown  in,  if  that  be  necessary,  to  have 
it  come  true  in  the  end.  The  man  who  will  do 
that,  who  will  take  that  stand  and  keep  it,  is 
beyond  price.  That  is  Theodore  Roosevelt 
from  the  ground  up.  And  now  you  know  why 
I  have  written  of  him  as  I  have. 

There  was  never  a  day  that  called  so  loudly 
for  such  as  he,  as  does  this  of  ours.  Not  that 
it  is  worse  than  other  days ;  I  know  it  is  better. 

[399] 


THEODORA    ROOSEVELT 

I  find  proof  of  it  in  the  very  fact  that  it  is 
as  if  the  age-long  fight  between  good  and  evil 
had  suddenly  come  to  a  head,  as  if  all  the 
questions  of  right,  of  justice,  of  the  brother- 
hood, which  we  had  seen  in  glimpses  before, 
and  dimly,  had  all  at  once  come  out  in  the 
open,  craving  solution  one  and  all.  A  battle 
royal,  truly!  A  battle  for  the  man  of  clean 
hands  and  clean  mind,  who  can  think  straight 
and  act  square;  the  man  who  will  stand  for 
the  right  "  because  it  is  right ";  who  can  say, 
and  mean  it,  that  "it  is  hard  to  fail,  but  worse 
never  to  have  tried  to  succeed."  A  battle  for 
him  who  strives  for  "  that  highest  form  of  suc- 
cess which  comes,  not  to  the  man  who  desires 
mere  easy  peace,  but  to  him  who  does  not  shrink 
from  danger,  from  hardship  or  from  bitter  toil, 
and  who  out  of  these  wins  the  splendid  ulti- 
mate triumph."  I  am  but  quoting  his  own 
words,  and  never,  I  think,  did  I  hear  finer  than 
those  he  spoke  of  Governor  Taft  when  he  had 
put  by  his  own  preferences  and  gone  to  his 
hard  and  toilsome  task  in  the  Philippines;  for 
the  whole  royal,  fighting  soul  of  the  man  was 
in  them. 

"  But  he  undertook  it  gladly,"  he  said,  "  and 

[400] 


A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

he  is  to  be  considered  thrice  fortunate;  for  in 
this  world  the  one  thing  supremely  worth  hav- 
ing is  the  opportunity  coupled  with  the  capa- 
city to  do  well  and  worthily  a  piece  of  work  the 
doing  of  which  is  of  vital  consequence  to  the 
welfare  of  mankind." 

There  is  his  measure.  Let  now  the  un- 
derstrappers sputter.  With  that  for  our  young 
men  to  grow  up  to,  we  need  have  no  fear  for 
the  morrow.  Let  it  ask  what  questions  it  will  of 
the  Republic,  it  shall  answer  them,  for  we 
shall  have  men  at  the  oars. 

This  afternoon  the  newspaper  that  came  to 
my  desk  contained  a  cable  despatch  which  gave 
me  a  glow  at  the  heart  such  as  I  have  not  felt 
for  a  while.  Just  three  lines ;  but  they  told  that 
a  nation's  conscience  was  struggling  victori- 
ously through  hate  and  foul  play  and  treason : 
Captain  Dreyfus  was  to  get  a  fair  trial. 
Justice  was  to  be  done  at  last  to  a  once  despised 
Jew  whose  wrongs  had  held  the  civilized  world 
upon  the  rack ;  and  the  world  was  made  happy. 
Say  now  it  does  not  move!  It  does,  where 
there  are  men  to  move  it,— I  said  it  before: 
men  who  believe  in  the  right  and  are  willing  to 
fight  for  it.  When  the  children  of  poverty  and 

[401] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

want  came  to  Mulberry  Street  for  justice, 
and  I  knew  they  came  because  Roosevelt  had 
been  there,  I  saw  in  that  what  the  resolute, 
courageous,  unyielding  determination  of  one 
man  to  see  right  done  in  his  own  time  could  ac- 
complish. I  have  watched  him  since  in  the 
Navy  Department,  in  camp,  as  Governor,  in 
the  White  House,  and  more  and  more  I  have 
made  out  his  message  as  being  to  the  young 
men  of  our  day,  himself  the  youngest  of  our 
Presidents.  I  know  it  is  so,  for  when  I  speak 
to  the  young  about  him,  I  see  their  eyes  kindle, 
and  their  hand-shake  tells  me  that  they  want 
to  be  like  him,  and  are  going  to  try.  And  then 
I  feel  that  I,  too,  have  done  something  worth 
doing  for  my  people.  For,  whether  for  good 
or  for  evil,  we  all  leave  our  mark  upon  our  day, 
and  his  is  that  of  a  clean,  strong  man  who  fights 
for  the  right  and  wins, 

Now,  then,  a  word  to  these  young  men  who, 
all  over  our  broad  land,  are  striving  up  toward 
the  standard  he  sets,  for  he  is  their  hero  by 
right,  as  he  is  mine.  Do  not  be  afraid  to  own  it. 
The  struggle  to  which  you  are  born,  and  in 
which  you  are  bound  to  take  a  hand  if  you 
would  be  men  in  more  than  name,  is  the  strug- 

[402] 


A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

gle  between  the  ideal  and  the  husk;  for  life 
without  ideals  is  like  the  world  without  the  hope 
of  heaven,  an  empty  meaningless  husk.  It 
is  your  business  to  read  its  meaning  into  it 
by  making  the  ideals  real.  The  material  things 
of  life  are  good  in  their  day,  but  they  pass 
away;  the  moral  remain  to  bear  witness  that 
the  high  hopes  of  youth  are  not  mere  phan- 
tasms. Theodore  Roosevelt  lives  his  ideals; 
therefore  you  can  trust  them.  Here  they  are 
in  working  shape :  "  Face  the  facts  as  you  find 
them;  strive  steadily  for  the  best."  "Be  never 
content  with  less  than  the  possible  best,  and 
never  throw  away  that  possible  best  because  it 
is  not  the  ideal  best."  Maxims,  those,  for  the 
young  man  who  wants  to  make  the  most  of 
himself  and  his  time.  Happily  for  the  world, 
the  young  man  who  does  not  is  rare. 

Perhaps  I  can  put  what  is  in  my  mind  in  no 
better  shape  than  by  giving  you  his  life-rules, 
to  which  I  have  seen  him  live  up  all  these  years, 
though  I  have  not  often  heard  him  express 
them  in  so  many  words.    Here  is  one: 
"  It  is  better  to  be  faithful  than  famous." 
Look  back  now  upon  his  career  as  I  have 
sketched  it,  and  see  how  in  being  steadfastly 

[403] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

one  he  has  become  both.  What  better  character 
could  you  or  I  or  anybody  give  our  day,  which 
the  croakers  say  worships  only  success?  Put 
it  the  other  way,  that  we  refuse  to  accept  the 
goodness  that  is  weak-kneed  and  cowardly, 
that  we  demand  of  the  champion  of  right  that 
he  shall  believe  in  his  cause  enough  to  fight 
for  it,  and  you  have  it.  Look  at  him  in  every 
walk  of  life,  from  boyhood,  when  by  sheer  will- 
power he  conquered  his  puny  body  that  he 
might  take  his  place  among  men  and  do  a  man's 
work,  and  see  how  plain,  straightforward  man- 
liness won  its  way  despite  the  plotters.  See  him 
going  on  his  way,  bearing  no  grudges,  nursing 
no  revenge, — you  cannot  afford  those  things  if 
you  want  to  make  the  most  of  yourself,— be- 
lieving no  evil,  but  ever  the  best,  of  his  neigh- 
bor, and  craving  his  help  for  the  best.  The 
secret  of  the  ages  which  the  wise  men  sought 
with  toil  and  trouble  and  missed,  he  found  in  his 
path  without  seeking.  The  talisman  that  turns 
dross  to  gold  is  your  own  faith  in  your  fel- 
low-man. Whatever  you  believe  him  to  be, 
with  the  faith  that  makes  you  love  your  neigh- 
bor in  spite  of  himself,  that  he  will  become.  He 
will  come  up  or  come  down  to  it,  as  you  make 

[404] 


A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

your  demand.  Appeal  to  the  animal,  and 
watch  the  claws  come  out;  appeal  to  the  divine 
in  him,  and  he  will  show  you  the  heart  of  your 
brother.  As  the  days  passed  in  Mulberry 
Street,  Roosevelt  seemed  to  me  more  and  more 
like  a  touchstone  by  rubbing  against  which  the 
true  metal  of  all  about  him  was  brought  out: 
every  rascal  became  his  implacable  enemy;  the 
honest,  his  followers  almost  to  a  man. 

When,  then,  you  have  a  bird's-eye  view  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt's  career,  cast  your  eye 
down  it  once  more  and  mark  its  bearings  as  a 
"  pathway  to  ruin."  That,  you  remember,  was 
what  the  politicians  called  it,  from  the  early 
years  in  Albany  down  to  the  present  day, — 
honestly  enough,  after  their  fashion,  for  they 
are  the  keepers  of  the  husk  I  spoke  of,  and 
of  the  power  of  the  ideal  they  have,  can  have 
no  conception.  Study  their  "  path  to  ruin  " 
carefully,  and  note  whither  it  led,  despite  the 
"  mistakes  "  with  which  it  was  thickly  strewn. 

Mistakes!  Roosevelt  is  no  more  infallible 
than  you  or  I,  and  no  doubt  he  has  made  his 
mistakes,  though  they  were  not  the  ones  the 
politicians  picked  out.  There  is  a  use  for 
mistakes  in  his  plan  of  life:  they  are  made  to 

[405] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

learn  from.  Here  is  another  of  his  maxims: 
"  The  only  man  who  makes  no  mistakes  is  the 
man  who  never  does  anything."  He  has  made 
fewer  than  most  people,  because  he  has  taught 
himself  from  the  very  start  to  think  quick  and 
straight.  He  makes  sure  he  is  right  and  then 
goes  ahead.  The  snags,  if  there  be  any  in  the 
way,  do  not  trouble  him.  Dodge  them  he  never 
does,  but  shoulders  the  responsibility  and  goes 
ahead.  That  is  one  reason  why  he  has  been 
able  to  do  so  much  in  his  brief  life:  he  never 
has  to  be  on  the  defensive,  to  cover  his  retreat, 
but  is  ever  ready  to  go  ahead,  to  attack. 

He  is  always  fair.  That  is  a  cardinal  virtue 
in  a  fighter  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  for  we  all 
have  the  love  of  fair  play  in  us.  He  never  hits 
a  man  below  the  belt.  Even  to  the  policemen 
whom  he  searched  out  at  night  in  the  old  days 
when  as  Commissioner  he  made  a  rounds- 
man of  himself,  he  gave  a  fair  show.  He  was 
not  out  to  "  make  a  case  "  against  them,  but 
to  see  that  they  did  their  duty.  Of  every  man 
he  demands  the  best  that  is  in  him,  no  more, 
no  less.  For  himself,  there  is  nothing  that  is 
worth  doing  at  all  that  is  not  worth  doing  as 
well  as  it  can  be  done.  When  he  was  a  boy  the 

[406] 


A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

wonders  of  electricity  aroused  his  interest,  and 
he  pelted  a  friend,  a  medical  practitioner,  with 
questions  concerning  it.  "  Other  boys  asked 
questions,"  the  doctor  said,  recalling  the  ex- 
perience; "  but  Theodore  wanted  to  know  the 
nature  of  the  force."  There  he  came  to  the 
limit  of  knowledge.  But  it  was  so  with  every- 
thing. What  he  knows  he  knows  thoroughly, 
because  he  has  learned  all  he  could  learn  about 
it;  and  so  he  is  able  to  give  points  to  his  oppo- 
nent and  win.  For  just  as  in  boxing  it  is 
science,  not  slugging,  that  wins,  so  in  life  it  is 
the  man  who  knows  who  carries  off  the  prizes 
worth  having.  He  gets  all  the  rewards,  the 
other  fellow  the  hard  knocks. 

When  the  work  in  hand  has  been  done  he 
believes  in  having  a  good  time.  No  man  has 
a  better.  He  put  it  in  words  once  in  my  hear- 
ing: "Have  all  the  fun  you  honestly  and  de- 
cently can;  it  is  your  right."  It  is  part  of  the 
perfect  balance  that  gets  things  done,  and  done 
right.  Above  all,  his  conception  of  life  is  a 
sane,  common-sense  one.  It  is  the  view  which 
leaves  the  fun  out  that  makes  all  the  trouble. 
Somewhere  I  have  told  of  my  experience  in 
Denmark,  my  old  home,  where  they  make  but- 

[407] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ter  for  a  living.  I  had  been  away  more  than 
twenty  years,  and  many  things  had  changed. 
I  found  the  country  divided  into  two  camps, 
in  matters  of  religious  practice,  when  in  my 
childhood  we  were  one.  Now  there  were  the 
"  happy  Christians,"  and  the  "  hell-preachers  " 
who  saw  only  the  wrath  to  come.  Speaking 
with  an  old  friend  about  the  dairy  industry,  he 
gave  me,  quite  unconsciously,  directions  that 
were  good  beyond  the  borders  of  the  Danish 
land:  "  If  you  want  good  butter,"  said  he, 
"  go  to  the  happy  Christians.  They  make  the 
best."  Of  course  they  do.  They  make  the 
world  go  round.  It  is  the  honest  fun  that 
keeps  life  sane  and  sweet,  butter  and  all. 

One  more  of  his  life-rules,  and  this  one  you 
may  fairly  call  his  motto:  "  Be  ready!  "  Am- 
munition fixed,  canteen  filled,  knapsack  slung, 
watch  for  the  opportunities  of  life  that  come, 
and  seize  them  as  they  pass.  They  are  for  the 
one  who  is  ready  for  them.  Lose  no  time;  a 
man  can  lose  a  fortune  and  make  another;  but 
the  time  that  is  lost  is  lost  forever.  It  does 
not  come  back.  Waste  no  time  in  grumbling. 
Roosevelt  never  does.  '\ne  man  who  is  busy 
helping  his  neighbor  has  no  time  to  growl. 

[408] 


A  YOUNG  MEN'S  HERO 

Growling  holds  up  progress  and  never  helps 
anything.  Be  ready,  and  when  the  order  comes 
fall  in.  Fighting  for  the  things  worth  while, 
hit  the  hardest  licks  you  know  how  and  never 
count  the  odds  against  you.  They  have  no- 
thing to  do  with  it.  If  you  are  right,  just  fight 
on,  "  trying  to  make  things  better  in  this 
world,  even  if  only  a  little  better,  because  you 
have  lived  in  it."  Let  that  be  your  watchword, 
and  all  will  come  out  right. 

My  story  stops  here.  There  is  nothing  in 
it,  as  I  have  shown  you  Roosevelt  and  his  life, 
that  is  beyond  the  reach  or  strength  of  any  one 
who  will  make  the  most  of  himself  with  deter- 
mined purpose.  "  He  stands,"  some  one  has 
said,  "  for  the  commonplace  virtues ;  he  is  great 
on  lines  along  which  each  one  of  us  can  be  great 
if  he  wills  and  dares ! "  It  is  for  that  reason 
above  all  significant  that  he  should  be  the 
young  man's  President,  the  type  and  hero  of 
the  generation  that  is  to  shape  the  coming  day 
of  our  Republic  as  it  is  entering  upon  its  world- 
mission  among  the  nations.  When  Theodore 
Roosevelt  first  came  into  my  -life,  he  "  came  to 
help."  How  he  has  helped  me  I  can  never  tell. 
He  made  my  life  many  times  richer  for  his 

[409] 


THEODORE'  ROOSEVELT 

coining.  Of  how  he  has  helped  all  of  us  we 
heard  the  echo  in  the  resolution  that  instructed 
the  delegates  of  Luzerne  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, the  first  to  be  chosen  anywhere  to  the 
National  Convention  of  the  Republican  party, 
to  vote  for  him  for  President. 

"  We  admire  the  courage,"  it  ran,  "  that 
prompts  him  to  do  right  to  all  men,  without 
respect  to  race,  color,  or  condition.  We  trust 
that  he  may  long  be  spared  to  stand  as  an  ex- 
ample of  virile  American  manhood,  fearing 
nothing  but  failure  to  do  his  duty  toward  God 
and  man." 

When  that  can  be  truly  said  of  a  man,  the 
rest  matters  little.  To  him  apply  the  words  of 
Washington,  which  will  never  die : 

"  Let  us  raise  a  standard  to  which  the  wise 
and  the  honest  can  repair.  The  event  is  in 
the  hand  of  God." 


XVII 

ROOSEVELT  AS  A  SPEAKER  AND 
WRITER 


XVII 

ROOSEVELT  AS  A  SPEAKER  AND 
WRITER 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT  speaks 
as  he  writes.  That  tells  the  story. 
He  makes  no  pretense  to  being  an 
orator.  Critics  sometimes  say  that  his  books 
are  not  "  literature,"  by  which  they  apparently 
mean  words  strung  together  to  sound  well. 
They  are  not.  But  what  he  writes  no  one  can 
misunderstand,  and  the  style  seems  to  the 
reader  unimportant,  though  it  is  notably  direct, 
terse  and  vigorous.  When  he  speaks,  there  is 
not  often  much  applause,  and  when  there  is,  he 
often  raises  his  hand  with  a  warning  gesture  to 
stop  it.  Both  his  hearers  and  he  are  much  too 
interested  in  the  thing  he  says  to  pay  great 
heed  to  the  way  he  says  it.  But  when  it  is 

[413] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

over,  his  hearers  go  away,  thinking.  They 
know  exactly  what  he  meant,  and,  for  the  best 
of  reasons — he  did.  I  cannot  think  of  a  better 
prescription  for  speechmaking  of  the  present 
day  that  is  meant  to  convince.  And  no  one 
ever  winks  when  he  speaks. 

Another  thing:  he  is  all  the  time  growing. 
The  man  who  does  not  grow  in  the  White  House 
is  not  fit  to  be  there.  "A  full-grown  man  who  is 
growing  still,"  an  Eastern  newspaper  that  is 
not  exactly  a  champion  of  Roosevelt  called  him 
after  his  Chamber  of  Commerce  speech  in  New 
York.  One  of  the  brightest  of  the  newspaper 
men  who  went  with  him  on  his  long  Western 
trip  said  to  me,  when  they  were  back  East: 
"  I  don't  think  any  sane  man  could  be  with  him 
two  weeks  without  getting  to  like  him;  but 
the  thing  that  struck  me  on  that  trip  was  the 
way  he  grew;  the  way  an  idea  grew  in  his 
mind  day  by  day  as  he  lived  with  it  until  it  took 
its  final  shape  in  speech.  Then  it  was  like  a 
knock-down  blow." 

Then  they  express  the  man.  Phrases  like 
this:  "  It  is  the  shots  which  hit  that  count,"  and 
to  the  boys  of  his  country:  "  Hit  the  line  hard; 
don't  foul  and  don't  shirk,  but  hit  the  line 

[414] 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

hard,"  are  Theodore  Roosevelt  all  over.  From 
time  to  time  I  have  made  notes  from  his 
writings  and  speeches.  I  am  going  to  set 
down  a  few  of  the  extracts  here.  Very  likely 
they  are  not  the  ones  that  would  appeal  to 
many  of  my  readers.  They  did  to  me;  that 
was  why  I  wrote  them  down.  And  Roosevelt 
is  in  them  all,  every  one.  Let  the  first  one  be 
the  extract  from  his  speech  at  the  opening  of 
the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  on 
November  11,  1902.  It  has  been  caUed  "  The 
Roosevelt  Doctrine  " : 

"  It  is  no  easy  matter  to  work  out  a  system 
or  rule  of  conduct,  whether  with  or  without  the 
help  of  the  lawgiver,  which  shall  minimize  that 
jarring  and  clashing  of  interests  in  the  indus- 
trial world  which  causes  so  much  individual 
irritation  and  suffering  at  the  present  day,  and 
which  at  times  threatens  baleful  consequences 
to  large  portions  of  the  body  politic.  But  the 
importance  of  the  problem  cannot  be  over- 
estimated, and  it  deserves  to  receive  the  careful 
thought  of  all  men.  There  should  be  no  yield- 
ing to  wrong ;  but  there  should  most  certainly 
be  not  only  desire  to  do  right,  but  a  willingness 
each  to  try  to  understand  the  viewpoint  of  his 

[415] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

fellow,  with  whom,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  his 
own  fortunes  are  indissolubly  bound. 

"  No  patent  remedy  can  be  devised  for  the 
solution  of  these  grave  problems  in  the  indus- 
trial world ;  but  we  may  rest  assured  that  they 
can  be  solved  at  all  only  if  we  bring  to  the 
solution  certain  old-time  virtues,  and  if  we 
strive  to  keep  out  of  the  solution  some  of 
the  most  familiar  and  most  undesirable  of 
the  traits  to  which  mankind  has  owed  untold 
degradation  and  suffering  throughout  the 
ages.  Arrogance,  suspicion,  brutal  envy  of 
the  well-to-do,  brutal  indifference  toward 
those  who  are  not  well-to-do,  the  hard  refusal 
to  consider  the  rights  of  others,  the  foolish 
refusal  to  consider  the  limits  of  beneficent 
action,  the  base  appeal  to  the  spirit  of  selfish 
greed,  whether  it  take  the  form  of  plunder  of 
the  fortunate  or  of  oppression  of  the  unfor- 
tunate— from  these  and  from  all  kindred  vices 
this  nation  must  be  kept  free  if  it  is  to  remain 
in  its  present  position  in  the  forefront  of  the 
peoples  of  mankind. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  good  will  come,  even 
out  of  the  present  evils,  if  we  face  them  armed 
with  the  old  homely  virtues;  if  we  show  that 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

we  are  fearless  of  soul,  cool  of  head,  and  kindly 
of  heart;  if,  without  betraying  the  weakness 
that  cringes  before  wrongdoing,  we  yet  show 
by  deeds  and  words  our  knowledge  that  in  such 
a  government  as  ours  each  of  us  must  be  in  very 
truth  his  brother's  keeper. 

"  At  a  time  when  the  growing  complexity  of 
our  social  and  industrial  life  has  rendered  inevi- 
table the  intrusion  of  the  state  into  spheres  of 
work  wherein  it  formerly  took  no  part,  and 
when  there  is  also  a  growing  tendency  to  de- 
mand the  illegitimate  and  unwise  transfer  to 
the  government  of  much  of  the  work  that 
should  be  done  by  private  persons,  singly  or 
associated  together,  it  is  a  pleasure  to  address 
a  body  whose  members  possess  to  an  eminent 
degre  the  traditional  American  self-reliance  of 
spirit  which  makes  them  scorn  to  ask  from  the 
government,  whether  of  state  or  or  nation, 
anything  but  a  fair  field  and  no  favor — who 
confide  not  in  being  helped  by  others,  but  in 
their  own  skill,  energy,  and  business  capacity 
to  achieve  success. 

"  The  first  requisite  of  a  good  citizen  in  this 
republic  of  ours  is  that  he  shall  be  able  and 
willing  to  pull  his  weight;  that  he  shall  not  be 

[417] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

a  mere  passenger,  but  shall  do  his  share  in  the 
work  that  each  generation  of  us  finds  ready  to 
hand ;  and,  furthermore,  that  in  doing  his  work 
he  shall  show,  not  only  the  capacity  for  sturdy 
self-help,  but  also  self-respecting  regard  for 
the  rights  of  others." 

Here  are  some  observations  of  the  President 
on  national  duties  and  expansion : 

"  Nations  that  expand  and  nations  that  do 
not  expand  may,  both  ultimately  go  down,  but 
the  one  leaves  heirs  and  a  glorious  memory,  and 
the  other  leaves  neither." 

"  We  are  strong  men  and  we  intend  to  do 
our  duty." 

"  We  cannot  sit  huddled  within  our  own  bor- 
ders and  avow  ourselves  merely  an  assemblage 
of  well-to-do  hucksters  who  care  nothing  for 
what  happens  beyond.  Such  a  policy  would 
defeat  even  its  own  ends;  for  as  the  nations 
grow  to  have  ever  wider  and  wider  interests 
and  are  brought  into  closer  and  closer  con- 
tact, if  we  are  to  hold  our  own  in  the  struggle 
for  naval  and  commercial  supremacy,  we  must 
build  up  our  power  within  our  own  borders." 

"  We  have  but  little  room  among  our  people 

[418] 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

for  the  timid,  the  irresolute  and  the  idle;  and 
it  is  no  less  true  that  there  is  scant  room  in  the 
world  at  large  for  the  nation  with  mighty 
thews  that  dares  not  to  be  great." 

"  It  is  not  possible  ever  to  insure  prosperity 
merely  by  law." 

"  This  government  is  not  and  never  shall  be  a 
plutocracy.  This  government  is  not  and  never 
shall  be  ruled  by  a  mob." 

"  Woe  to  us  all  if  ever  as  a  people  we  grow  to 
condone  evil  because  it  is  successful." 

"  The  wilfully  idle  man,  like  the  wilfully 
barren  woman,  has  no  place  in  a  sane,  healthy 
and  vigorous  community." 

"  Success  comes  only  to  those  who  lead  the 
life  of  endeavor." 

"  Our  interests  are  at  bottom  common ;  in  the 
long  run  we  go  up  or  go  down  together." 
/     "  No  prosperity  and  no  glory  can  save  a 
nation  that  is  rotten  at  heart." 

"  Ultimately  no  nation  can  be  great  unless  its 
greatness  is  laid  on  foundations  of  righteous- 
ness .«nd  decency.  We  cannot  do  great  deeds 
as  a  nation  unless  we  are  willing  to  do  the  small 
things  that  make  up  the  sum  of  greatness,  un- 
less -we  believe  in  energy  and  thrift,  unless  we 

[419] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

believe  that  we  have  more  to  do  than  to  simply 
accomplish  material  prosperity ;  unless,  in  short, 
we  do  our  full  duty  as  private  citizens,  inter- 
ested alike  in  the  honor  of  the  state." 

"  A  nation's  greatness  lies  in  its  possibility  of 
achievement  in  the  present,  and  nothing  helps 
it  more  than  consciousness  of  achievement  in 
the  past." 

"  Boasting  and  blustering  are  as  objection- 
able among  nations  as  among  individuals,  and 
the  public  men  of  a  great  nation  owe  it  to  their 
sense  of  national  self-respect  to  speak  cour- 
teously of  foreign  powers,  just  as  a  brave  and 
self-respecting  man  treats  all  around  him 
courteously." 

The  famous  phrase,  "  the  strenuous  life,"  is 
from  his  speech  to  the  Hamilton  Club,  in  Chi- 
cago, in  1899.  This  was  the  sentence  in  which 
it  occurred : 

"  I  wish  to  preach,  not  the  doctrine  of  ignoble 
ease,  but  the  doctrine  of  the  strenuous  life,  the 
life  of  toil  and  effort,  of  labor  and  strife;  to 
preach  that  highest  form  of  success  which 
comes,  not  to  the  man  who  desires  mere  easy 
peace,  but  to  the  man  who  does  not  shrink  from 

J420] 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

danger,  from  hardships,  or  from  bitter  toil,  and 
who  out  of  these  wins  the  splendid  ultimate 
triumph." 

On  practical  politics  and  Christian  citizen- 
ship he  has  this  to  say : 

"  I  am  a  loyal  party  man,  but  I  believe  very 
firmly  that  I  can  best  render  aid  to  my  party  by 
doing  all  that  in  me  lies  to  make  that  party 
responsive  to  the  needs  of  the  state,  responsive 
to  the  needs  of  the  people,  and  just  so  far  as  I 
work  along  those  lines  I  have  the  right  to  chal- 
lenge the  support  of  every  decent  man,  no  mat- 
ter what  his  party  may  be." 

"  I  despise  a  man  who  surrenders  his  con- 
science to  a  multitude  as  much  as  I  do  the  one 
who  surrenders  it  to  one  man." 

"  If  we  wish  to  do  good  work  for  our  country 
we  must  be  unselfish,  disinterested,  sincerely 
desirous  of  the  well-being  of  the  common- 
wealth, and  capable  of  devoted  adherence  to  a 
lofty  ideal;  but  in  addition  we  must  be  vigor- 
ous in  mind  and  body,  able  to  hold  our  own  in 
rough  conflict  with  our  fellows,  able  to  suffer 
punishment  without  flinching,  and,  at  need,  to 
repay  it  in  kind  with  full  interest." 

[421] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

"  You  can't  govern  yourselves  by  sitting  in 
your  studies  and  thinking  how  good  you  are. 
You've  got  to  fight  all  you  know  how,  and 
you'll  find  a  lot  of  able  men  willing  to  fight 
you." 

"  A  man  must  go  into  practical  politics  in 
order  to  make  his  influence  felt.  Practical 
politics  must  not  be  construed  to  mean  dirty 
politics.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  long  run  the 
politics  of  fraud  and  treachery  and  foulness  is 
unpractical  politics,  and  the  most  practical  of 
all  politicians  is  the  politician  who  is  clean  and 
decent  and  upright." 

"  The  actual  advance  must  be  made  in  the 
field  of  practical  politics,  among  the  men  who 
are  sometimes  rough  and  coarse,  who  some- 
times have  lower  ideals  than  they  should,  but 
who  are  capable,  masterful  and  efficient." 

"  No  one  of  us  can  make  the  world  move  on 
very  far,  but  it  moves  at  all  only  when  each  one 
of  a  very  large  number  does  his  duty." 

"  Clean  politics  is  simply  one  form  of  applied 
good  citizenship." 

"  A  man  should  be  no  more  excused  for  lying 
on  the  stump  than  for  lying  off  the  stump." 

"  It  is  a  good  thing  to  appeal  to  citizens  to 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

work  for  good  government  because  it  will 
better  their  state  materially;  but  it  is  a  far 
better  thing  to  appeal  to  them  to  work  for 
good  government  because  it  is  right  in  itself 
to  do  so." 

"  Morally,  a  pound  of  construction  is  worth 
a  ton  of  destruction." 

ON  EXPEDIENCY:  "  No  man  is  justified  in 
doing  evil  on  the  ground  of  expediency.  He  is 
bound  to  do  all  the  good  possible.  Yet  he  must 
consider  the  question  of  expediency,  in  order 
that  he  may  do  all  the  good  possible,  for  other- 
wise he  will  do  none.  As  soon  as  a  politician 
gets  to  the  point  of  thinking  that  to  be  '  practi- 
cal '  he  has  got  to  be  base,  he  has  become  a  nox- 
ious member  of  the  body  politic.  That  species 
of  practicability  eats  into  the  moral  sense  of  the 
people  like  a  cancer,  and  he  who  practices  it 
can  no  more  be  excused  than  an  editor  who 
debauches  public  decency  in  order  to  sell  his 
paper." 

ON  CYNICISM  :  "  Cynicism  in  public  life  is 
a  curse,  and  when  a  man  has  lost  the  power  of 
enthusiasm  for  righteousness  it  will  be  better 

[423] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

for  him  and  the  country  if  he  abandons  public 
life." 


ON  LABOR  (from  the  President's  Labor  Day 
speech  at  Syracuse,  1903)  :  "  No  man  needs 
sympathy  because  he  has  to  work,  because  he 
has  a  burden  to  carry.  Far  and  away  the  best 
prize  that  life  offers  is  the  chance  to  work  hard 
at  work  worth  doing." 

"  We  can  keep  our  government  on  a  sane  and 
healthy  basis,  we  can  make  and  keep  our  social 
system  what  it  should  be,  only  on  condition  of 
judging  each  man,  not  as  a  member  of  a  class, 
but  on  his  worth  as  a  man.  It  is  an  infamous 
thing  in  our  American  life,  and  fundamentally 
treacherous  to  our  institutions,  to  apply  to  any 
man  any  test  save  that  of  his  personal  worth, 
or  to  draw  between  two  sets  of  men  any  dis- 
tinction save  the  distinction  of  conduct,  the 
distinction  that  marks  off  those  who  do  well 
and  wisely  from  those  who  do  ill  and  foolishly. 
There  are  good  citizens  and  bad  citizens  in 
every  class,  as  in  every  locality,  and  the  attitude 
of  decent  people  toward  great  public  and  social 
questions  should  be  determined,  not  by  the 
accidental  questions  of  employment  or  locality, 

[424] 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

but  by  those  deep-set  principles  which  repre- 
sent the  innermost  souls  of  men." 

"  The  average  American  knows  not  only  that 
he  himself  intends  to  do  about  what  is  right, 
but  that  his  average  fellow-countryman  has  the 
same  intention  and  the  same  power  to  make  his 
intention  effective.  He  knows,  whether  he  be 
business  man,  professional  man,  farmer,  me- 
chanic, employer  or  wage-worker,  that  the 
welfare  of  each  of  these  men  is  bound  up  with 
the  welfare  of  all  the  others;  that  each  is 
neighbor  to  the  other,  is  actuated  by  the  same 
hopes  and  fears,  has  fundamentally  the  same 
ideals,  and  that  all  alike  have  much  the  same 
virtues  and  the  same  faults. 

"  Our  average  fellow-citizen  is  a  sane  and 
healthy  man,  who  believes  in  decency  and  has  a 
wholesome  mind." 

ON  CORPORATIONS  (in  speech  to  the  City 
Club,  New  York,  when  he  was  Governor) : 
"  I  hope  no  party  will  make  a  direct  move 
against  corporations.  .  .  .  Make  the  man 
who  says  he  is  for  the  corporation  see  to  it  that 
he  doesn't  give  those  corporations  undue  pro- 
tection, and  let  the  man  who  is  against  cor- 

[425] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

porative  wealth  remember  that  he  has  no  right 
to  pillage  a  corporate  treasury." 

From  the  President's  Message,  January, 
1904:  "Every  man  must  be  guaranteed  his 
liberty  and  his  right  to  do  as  he  likes  with  his 
property  or  his  labor,  so  long  as  he  does  not 
infringe  the  rights  of  others.  No  man  is  above 
the  law  and  no  man  is  below  it ;  nor  do  we  ask 
any  man's  permission  when  we  require  him  to 
obey  it.  Obedience  to  the  law  is  demanded  as 
a  right,  not  asked  as  a  favor." 

ON  IMMIGRATION:  "We  cannot  have  too 
much  immigration  of  the  right  kind,  and  we 
should  have  none  at  all  of  the  wrong  kind. 
The  need  is  to  devise  some  system  by  which 
undesirable  immigrants  shall  be  kept  out  en- 
tirely, while  desirable  immigrants  are  properly 
distributed  throughout  the  country." 

ON  BRIBERY  :  "  There  can  be  no  crime  more 
serious  than  bribery.  Other  offences  violate 
one  law,  while  corruption  strikes  at  the  founda- 
tion of  all  law.  The  stain  lies  in  toleration,  not 
in  correction." 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

ON  FELLOWSHIP  (in  address  to  New  York 
State  Conference  on  Church  Federation) : 
"  People  make  an  unspeakable  mistake  when 
they  quarrel  about  the  boundary  line  between 
them.  They  have  a  common  enemy  to  face, 
who  demands  united  attention  and  united 
action." 

ON  How  TO  HELP  A  NEIGHBOR:  "  In 
charity  the  one  thing  always  to  be  remembered 
is  that  while  any  man  may  slip  and  should  at 
once  be  helped  to  rise  to  his  feet,  yet  no  man 
can  be  carried  with  advantage  either  to  him  or 
to  the  community." 

"  If  a  man  permits  largeness  of  heart  to  de- 
generate into  softness  of  head  he  inevitably 
becomes  a  nuisance  in  any  relation  of  life." 

"  If,  with  the  best  of  intentions,  we  can  only 
manage  to  deserve  the  epithet  of  '  harmless,' 
it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  have  lived  in  the 
world  at  all." 

ON  SUCCESS  IN  LIFE  (in  speech  at  La 
Crosse,  Wis.,  1903)  :  "If  you  want  your  chil- 
dren to  be  successful,  you  should  teach  them 
the  life  that  is  worth  living,  is  worth  working 

[427J 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

for.  What  a  wretched  life  is  that  of  a  man 
who  seeks  to  shirk  the  burdens  laid  on  us  in  the 
world.  It  is  equally  ignoble  whether  he  be  a 
man  of  wealth  or  one  who  earns  his  bread  in  the 
sweat  of  his  brow." 

ON  LYNCHING:  "  The  worst  enemy  of  the 
colored  race  is  the  colored  man  who  commits 
some  hideous  wrong,  especially  if  that  be  the 
worst  of  all  crimes :  rape ;  and  the  worst  enemy 
of  the  white  race  is  the  white  man  who  avenges 
that  crime  by  another  crime,  equally  infamous. 
.  .  .  Shameless  deeds  of  infamous  hideous- 
ness  should  be  punished  speedily,  but  by  the 
law,  not  by  another  crime." 

Two  things  which  Mr.  Roosevelt  did  when 
Governor  of  New  York,  among  the  countless 
minor  details  of  his  official  life,  always  seemed 
to  me  so  characteristic  of  him  that  I  have  kept 
the  record  of  them. 

When  Mrs.  Place  was  to  be  executed  for  the 
murder  of  her  step-daughter,  after  a  period  of 
great  public  excitement,  he  wrote  to  the  war- 
den of  Sing  Sing:  "  I  particularly  desire  that 
this  solemn  and  awful  act  of  justice  shall  not 

[428] 


AS  A  SPEAKER  AND  WRITER 

be  made  an  excuse  for  the  hideous  sensational- 
ism which  is  more  demoralizing  than  anything 
else  to  the  public  mind." 

A  bill  had  passed  the  Assembly,  giving 
directions  as  to  the  wearing  of  gowns  by  attor- 
neys practicing  in  the  Supreme  Court.  Gov- 
ernor Roosevelt  returned  it  without  his  ap- 
proval, but  with  this  endorsement: 

"  This  bill  is  obviously  and  utterly  unneces- 
sary-. The  whole  subject  should  be  left  and 
can  safely  be  left  where  it  properly  belongs — 
to  the  good  sense  of  the  judiciary." 

I  shall  set  down  last  the  closing  words  of 
the  speech  in  which  Theodore  Roosevelt  sec- 
onded the  nomination  of  William  McKinley, 
whom  so  soon  he  was  to  succeed,  at  the  Phila- 
delphia Convention,  in  June,  1900.  They 
contain  his  prophecy  of 

THE  NEW  CENTURY. 

"  We  stand  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  cen- 
tury, a  century  big  with  fate  of  the  great 
nations  of  the  earth.  It  rests  with  us  to  decide 
whether  in  the  opening  years  of  that  century 
we  shall  march  forward  to  fresh  triumphs,  or 
whether  at  the  outset  we  shall  deliberately  crip- 

[429;] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

pie  ourselves  for  the  contest.  Is  America  a 
weakling  to  shrink  from  the  world-work  to  be 
done  by  the  world  powers?  No!  The  young 
Giant  of  the  West  stands  on  a  continent  and 
clasps  the  crest  of  an  ocean  in  either  hand. 
Our  nation,  glorious  in  youth  and  strength, 
looks  into  the  future  with  fearless  and  eager 
eyes,  and  rejoices  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a 
race.  We  do  not  stand  in  craven  mood,  asking 
to  be  spared  the  task,  cringing  as  we  gaze  on 
the  contest.  No!  We  challenge  the  proud 
privilege  of  doing  the  work  that  Providence 
allots  us,  and  we  face  the  coming  years  high 
of  heart  and  resolute  of  faith  that  to  our  peo- 
ple is  given  the  right  to  win  such  honor  and 
renown  as  has  never  yet  been  granted  to  the 
peoples  of  mankind." 


[430] 


XVIII 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S 
FATHER 


XVIII 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S 
FATHER* 

ON  the  rocky  point  of  Lake  Wah- 
waskesh,  across  from  where  I  have 
been  idling  in  my  canoe  all  morning, 
angling  for  bass,  there  stood  once  a  giant  pine, 
a  real  monarch  of  the  forest.  The  winter 
storms  laid  it  low,  and  its  skeleton  branches 
harass  the  inlet,  reaching  half-way  across. 
Perched  on  the  nearest  one,  a  choleric  red 
squirrel  has  been  scolding  me  quite  half  an  hour 
for  intruding  where  I  am  not  wanted.  But 
its  abuse  is  wasted ;  my  thoughts  were  far  away. 
From  among  the  roots  of  the  fallen  tree  a 
sturdy  young  pine  has  sprung,  straight  and 
shapely,  fair  to  look  at.  The  sight  of  the  two, 
the  dead  and  the  living,  made  me  think  of  two 

*Written  in  camp,  in  Canada,  when   Mr.  Roosevelt  was  a  candidate  for 
the  Vice-Presidency. 

[438] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

at  home  who  loved  the  wildwood  well.  Father 
and  son,  they  bore  but  one  name,  known  to  us 
all — Theodore  Roosevelt.  There  came  to  my 
mind  the  pronunciamento  of  some  one  which  I 
had  read  in  a  !NTew  York  newspaper,  that  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's  day  was  soon  spent,  and  other 
less  recent  deliverances  to  the  same  effect. 
And  it  occurred  to  me  that  these  good  people 
had  probably  never  heard  the  story  of  the  other 
Theodore,  the  Governor's  father,  or  else  had 
forgotten  it.  So,  for  the  benefit  of  the  pro- 
phetic souls  who  are  always  shaking  their  heads 
at  the  son,  predicting  that  he  will  not  last,  I 
tell  the  story  here  again.  They  will  have  no 
trouble  in  making  out  the  bearing  of  it  on  their 
pet  concern.  And  they  will  note  that  the  father 
"  lasted  "  well,  which  was  giving  the  commu- 
nity in  which  he  lived  a  character  to  be  proud 
of.  He  did  more.  "  He  grew  on  us  continu- 
ally," said  one  who  had  known  him  well,  "  un- 
til we  wondered  with  a  kind  of  awe  for  what 
great  purpose  he  had  been  put  among  us." 
The  people  "  resolved  "  at  his  untimely  death 
that  it  "  involved  a  loss  of  moral  power  and 
executive  efficiency  which  no  community  can 
well  spare." 

[434] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

Theodore  Roosevelt  was  a  glass  importer  in 
Maiden  Lane,  having  taken  over  the  business 
after  his  father,  Cornelius.  The  Roosevelts 
had  always  borne  an  honored  name  in  New 
York.  Two  of  the  sons  of  Jacob  Hoosevelt, 
who  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century  bought 
land  "  in  the  swamp  near  the  cripple  bush  "  and 
had  the  street  that  still  bears  the  family  name 
cut  through,  were  Aldermen  when  the  office 
meant  something.  Isaac  Roosevelt  sat  in  the 
Constitutional  Convention  with  Alexander 
Hamilton.  He  had  been  the  right-hand  man 
of  Governor  Moore  in  organizing  the  New 
York  hospital  corporation,  and  President  of 
the  Board  of  Governors.  Organizers  they  ever 
were,  doers  of  things,  and  patriots  to  a  man. 
It  was  a  Roosevelt  who  started  the  first  bank  in 
New  York  and  was  its  first  president.  Theo- 
dore came  honestly  by  the  powers  which  he 
turned  to  such  account  for  his  city  when  it 
needed  him.  He  had  in  him  the  splendid 
physical  endurance,  the  love  of  a  fight  in  the 
cause  of  right,  and  the  clear  head  of  his  Dutch 
ancestors,  plus  the  profound  devotion  that 
"  held  himself  and  all  he  had  at  the  service  of 
humanity."  With  such  an  equipment  a  college 

[435] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

education  matters  little.  Theodore's  father 
thought  it  might  spoil  his  boys,  and  took  no 
chances.  But  exclusion  of  college  did  not 
mean  to  them  loss  of  culture.  That  was  their 
birthright. 

The  war  came,  with  its  challenge  to  the  youth 
of  the  land.  I  fancy  that  Theodore  Roosevelt 
fought  and  won  a  harder  fight  in  staying 
home  than  many  a  one  who  went.  There  were 
reasons  why  he  should  stay,  good  reasons,  and 
he  stayed.  But  if  he  could  not  fight  for  his 
country,  he  could  at  least  back  up  those  who 
did.  He  set  himself  at  once  to  develop  prac- 
tical plans  of  serving  them.  He  helped  raise 
and  equip  regiments  that  went  out — the  first 
colored  one  among  them;  he  joined  in  orga- 
nizing the  Union  League  Club,  the  strong 
patriotic  center  of  that  day;  he  worked  with 
the  Loyal  Publication  Society,  which  was  doing 
a  great  educational  work  at  a  time  when  there 
was  much  ignorance  as  to  the  large  issues  of 
the  conflict ;  he  had  a  hand  in  the  organization 
of  the  sanitary  commission  that  saw  to  the 
comfort  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field.  And  when 
he  had  made  sure  that  they  were  well  fed  and 
cared  for,  he  turned  his  attention  to  those  they 

[436] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

had  left  behind.  It  was  then  he  did  the  work 
for  which  he  and  his  colleagues  received  the 
thanks  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State  in  joint 
session,  much  to  its  own  credit. 

Many  of  the  soldiers'  families  were  suffering 
for  bread,  while  they  wasted  it  by  the  cart-load 
in  the  army.  The  Government  paid  millions  each 
month  to  the  men,  only  to  see  the  money  squan- 
dered in  riotous  living  at  the  sutlers'  tents.  Very 
little  of  it,  if  any,  ever  reached  home.  There 
were  enough  to  offer  to  start  it  out,  but  the 
chances  were  greatly  against  its  getting  there. 
The  sutler  who  sold  forbidden  rum  in  hollow 
loaves  or  imitation  Bibles  was  not  one  to  stop  at 
a  little  plain  robbery.  The  money  was  lost  or 
wasted,  the  families  starved,  and  the  morale  of 
the  army  suffered.  Mr.  Roosevelt  drafted  a 
bill  to  establish  "  allotment  commissions,"  and 
took  it  to  Washington.  It  was  a  plain  measure 
authorizing  commissioners  appointed  for  each 
State  to  receive  such  a  proportion  of  the  sol- 
dier's pay  as  he  wished  to  send  home,  and  to 
forward  it  without  cost  or  risk  to  him.  He 
simply  gave  notice  how  much  he  wanted  the 
wife  to  have,  for  instance ;  the  general  Govern- 
ment Jianded  the  amount  to  them,  and  they 

[437] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

saw  that  she  got  it.  But  it  was  not  plain  sail- 
ing to  get  the  bill  passed.  The  men  who  were 
robbing  the  soldier  denounced  it  as  a  swindle. 
Congressmen  rated  it  a  "  bankers'  job,"  unable 
to  understand  why  any  one  should  urge  a  bill 
at  much  personal  inconvenience  when  "  there 
was  nothing  in  it  "  for  him.  The  bill  provided 
for  unsalaried  commissioners.  But  Mr.  Roose- 
velt persisted.  In  the  end,  after  three  months 
of  hard  work,  he  got  his  bill  through.  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  who  understood,  appointed  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt,  William  E.  Dodge,  and  Theo- 
dore B.  Bronson  the  commissioners  from  New 
York.  They  went  to  work  at  once. 

It  was  midwinter.  During  the  first  three 
months  of  1862  they  traveled  from  camp  to 
camp,  visiting  the  eighty  regiments  New  York 
had  in  the  field,  and  putting  the  matter  to  them 
personally.  In  the  saddle  often  all  day,  they 
stood  afterward  in  the  cold  and  mud  sometimes 
half  the  night,  explaining  and  persuading, 
bearing  insults  and  sneers  from  many  of  those 
they  wished  to  benefit.  The  story  of  that  win- 
ter's campaign  is  a  human  document  recom- 
mended to  the  perusal  of  the  pessimists  and 
the  head-shakers  of  any  day.  They  had  soon 

[438] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

to  give  up  the  plea  that  they  received  no  pay 
for  their  services,  "  because  it  aroused  only  sus- 
picion." But  they  did  not  quit  on  that  account. 
There  was  this  thing  to  be  done,  by  such  means 
as  they  could.  They  learned,  when  any  one 
asked  how  they  benefited  by  it,  to  tell  them  that 
it  was  none  of  their  business.  "  The  money 
does  not  come  out  of  your  pocket;  if  we  are 
satisfied,  what  is  it  to  you?  "  They  won  their 
fight,  as  they  were  bound  to,  saved  thousands 
of  homes,  and  raised  the  tone  of  the  army,  in 
spite  of  snubs  and  predictions  of  failure.  Even 
their  own  city  sent  rival  commissioners  into  the 
field  at  one  time,  discrediting  their  work  and 
their  motives. 

Other  States  heard  of  the  great  things  done 
in  New  York,  and  followed  suit.  Great  good 
resulted.  In  New  York  alone  the  amount 
saved  to  those  in  dire  need  of  it  ran  up  in  the 
millions.  It  is  recorded  of  Theodore  Roosevelt 
that  through  it  all  he  never  lost  his  temper  or 
his  sunny  belief  in  his  fellow-men  whom  he  had 
set  out  to  serve.  Conscious  zeal  did  not  sour 
him.  It  is  easy  to  believe  the  statement  that  it 
was  he  who,  with  a  friend,  persuaded  President 
Lincoln  to  replace  Simon  Cameron  with  Stan- 

[439] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

ton  in  the  War  Department.  That  lonely  man 
had  few  enough  of  his  kind  about  him.  At  a 
time  when  the  camps  were  gloomy  and  the  out- 
look dark,  it  was  Roosevelt  who  got  up  the — 
I  came  near  saying  the  round-robin  to  his  coun- 
trymen; it  is  not  always  an  easy  thing  to  keep 
the  two  Theodores  apart.  But  that  was  not 
what  was  wanted  at  that  time ;  it  was  a  message 
of  cheer  from  home,  and  it  came  in  the  shape  of 
a  giant  Thanksgiving  dinner  sent  from  the 
North  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Veterans 
remember  it  well,  and  how  it  revived  flagging 
spirits  and  put  heart  into  things,  though  grum- 
blers were  not  wanting  to  dub  it  fantastical. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  got  that  up.  He  collected  the 
funds,  and,  with  his  marvelous  faculty  for  get- 
ting things  done,  made  it  the  rousing  success 
it  was.  Perhaps  it  is  not  a  great  thing  to 
give  a  dinner;  but  just  then  it  was  the  one 
thing  to  be  done,  and  he  did  it.  Then,  when 
the  fight  was  over,  he  had  a  hand  in  organizing 
the  Protective  War  Claims  Association,  which 
collected  the  dues  of  crippled  veterans  and  of 
the  families  of  the  dead  without  charge,  and 
saved  them  from  the  fangs  of  the  sharks.  It 
was  at  Mr.  Roosevelt's  house  that  the  Soldiers' 

[440] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

Employment  Bureau  was  organized,  which  did 
so  much  toward  absorbing  into  the  population 
again  the  vast  army  of  men  who  were  in  dan- 
ger of  becoming  dependent,  and  helped  them 
preserve  their  self-respect. 

That  issue  was  not  so  easily  met,  however. 
The  heritage  of  a  great  war  was  upon  the  land. 
The  community  was  being  rapidly  pauperized. 
Vast  sums  of  money  were  wasted  on  ill-con- 
sidered charity.  Fraud  was  rampant.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  set  about  weeding  it  out  by  organiz- 
ing the  city's  charities.  We  find  him  laboring 
as  a  member  of  a  "  committee  of  nine,"  with 
Protestants,  Jews,  and  Roman  Catholics,  to 
ferret  out  and  arraign  the  institutions  "  exist- 
ing only  to  furnish  lazy  managers  with  a  liv- 
ing." He  became  the  Vice-President  of  the 
State  Charities'  Aid  Association,  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  United  Charities,  and  finally  the 
head  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  for  the 
creation  of  which  he  had  long  striven.  Wher- 
ever there  was  a  break  to  be  repaired,  a  leak  to 
be  stopped,  there  he  was.  He  founded  a  hos- 
pital and  dispensary  for  the  treatment  of  hope- 
less spine  and  hip  diseases.  He  pleaded,  even 
on  his  death-bed,  for  rational  treatment  of  the 

[441] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

unhappy  lunatics  in  the  city's  hospitals;  for 
a  farm  where  the  boys  in  the  House  of  Refuge 
might  be  fitted  for  healthy  country  life;  for 
responsible  management  of  the  State's  Orphan 
Asylums,  for  decent  care  of  vagrants,  for  im- 
proved tenements.  In  all  he  did  he  was  sen- 
sibly practical  and  wholesomely  persistent. 
When  he  knew  a  thing  to  be  right,  it  had  to  be 
done,  and  usually  was  done.  With  all  that,  he 
knew  how  to  allow  for  differences  of  opinion  in 
others  who  were  as  honest  as  he.  Those  who 
were  not,  expected  no  quarter  and  got  none. 
Mr.  Roosevelt's  good  sense  showed  him  early 
that  the  problem  of  pauperism  with  which  he 
was  battling  could  not  be  run  down.  It  had  to 
be  headed  off  if  the  fight  was  to  be  won.  So 
he  became  Charles  Loring  Brace's  most  ener- 
getic backer  in  his  fight  for  the  children.  He 
was  a  trustee  of  the  Children's  Aid  Society, 
and  never  in  all  the  years  missed  a  Sunday 
evening  with  the  boys  in  the  Eighteenth 
Street  lodging-house  which  was  his  particu- 
lar charge.  He  knew  them  by  name,  and 
was  their  friend  and  adviser.  And  they 
loved  him.  When  he  lay  dying,  they  bought 
rosebuds  with  their  spare  pennies  and  sent 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

them  to  his  house.  Many  a  time  he  had  come 
from  the  country  with  armfuls  of  flowers 
for  them.  The  little  lame  Italian  girl  for 
whom  he  had  bought  crutches  wrote  him  with 
infinite  toil  a  tear-stained  note  to  please  get 
well  and  come  and  see  her.  His  sympathy  with 
poverty  and  suffering  was  instinctive  and  in- 
stant. One  day  of  the  seven  he  gave,  however 
driven  at  the  office,  to  personal  work  among 
the  poor,  visiting  them  at  their  homes.  It  was 
not  a  penance  with  him,  but,  he  used  to  say,  one 
of  his  chief  blessings. 

He  was  rich  and  gave  liberally,  but  always 
with  sense.  He  was  a  reformer  of  charity 
methods,  as  of  bad  political  methods  in  his  own 
fold.  For  that  cause  he  was  rejected  by  a 
Republican  Senate,  at  the  instance  of  Roscoe 
Conkling,  when  President  Hayes  appointed 
him  Collector  of  the  Port.  Mr.  Roosevelt  had 
accepted  with  the  statement  that  he  would 
administer  the  office  for  the  benefit,  not  of  the 
party,  but  of  the  whole  people.  That  meant 
the  retirement  of  the  Custom-House  influence 
in  politics,  and  civil  service  reform,  for  which 
the  time  was  not  ripe.  It  was  left  to  his  son 
to  carry  out,  as  was  so  much  else  he  had  at 

[443] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

heart.  So  far  as  I  know,  that  was  the  elder 
Roosevelt's  only  appearance  in  politics,  as  poli- 
ticians understand  the  term.  Always  a  Re- 
publican, he  had  gone  to  the  Cincinnati  Con- 
vention, which  nominated  Mr.  Hayes,  as  a 
representative  of  the  Reform  League. 

Church,  Mission,  and  Sunday-school  had  in 
him  a  stanch  supporter.  He  was  a  constant 
contributor  with  counsel  and  purse  to  the  work 
of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association.  I 
like  to  think  that  the  key  to  all  he  was  and  did 
is  in  the  answer  he  gave  his  pastor  when  once 
the  latter  said  that  he  liked  his  name  Theodore, 
with  its  meaning,  "  a  gift  of  God."  "  Why 
may  we  not,"  replied  Mr.  Roosevelt,  "  change 
it  about  a  bit  and  make  it  '  a  gift  to  God  '  ?  " 
No  man  could  have  said  it  unless  he  meant  just 
that.  And,  meaning  it,  his  life  must  be  exactly 
what  it  was. 

This  is  the  picture  we  get  of  him :  a  man  of 
untiring  energy,  of  prodigious  industry,  the 
most  valiant  fighter  in  his  day  for  the  right, 
and  the  winner  of  his  fights.  Mr.  Brace  said 
of  him  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  mention 
any  good  thing  attempted  in  New  York  in 
twenty  years  in  which  he  did  not  have  a  hand. 

[444] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

With  it  all  he  enjoyed  life  as  few,  and  with 
cause:  he  never  neglected  a  duty.  He  drove 
a  four-in-hand  in  the  Park,  sailed  a  boat,  loved 
the  woods,  shared  in  every  athletic  sport,  and 
was  the  life  and  soul  of  every  company.  At 
forty-six  he  was  as  strong  and  active  as  at 
sixteen,  his  youthful  ideals  as  undimmed.  I 
have  had  to  suffer  many  taunts  in  my  days  on 
account  of  my  hero  of  fiction,  John  Halifax, 
from  those  who  never  found  a  man  so  good. 
I  have  been  happier  than  they,  it  seems.  But 
perhaps  they  did  not  know  him  when  they  saw 
him.  Some  of  them  must  have  known  Theo- 
dore Roosevelt,  and  he  was  just  such  a  one. 
He  would  go  to  a  meeting  of  dignified  citizens 
to  discuss  the  gravest  concerns  of  the  city  or  of 
finance,  with  a  sick  kitten  in  his  coat-pocket, 
which  he  had  picked  up  in  the  street  and  was 
piloting  to  some  safe  harbor.  His  home  life 
was  what  you  might  expect  of  such  a  man. 
His  children  worshiped  him.  A  score  of  times 
I  have  heard  his  son  sigh,  when,  as  Governor 
or  Police  Commissioner,  he  had  accomplished 
something  for  which  his  father  had  striven  and 
paved  the  way,  "  How  I  wish  father  were  here 
and  could  see  it!  "  His  testimony  of  filial  love 

[445] 


THEODORE  RObSEVELT'S  FATHER 

completes  the  picture.  "  Father  was,"  he  said 
to  me,  "  the  finest  man  I  ever  knew,  and  the 
happiest." 

His  power  of  endurance  was  as  extraordi- 
nary as  his  industry.  In  the  last  winter  of  his 
life,  when  he  was  struggling  with  a  mortal 
disease,  his  daily  routine  was  to  rise  -at  8:30, 
and  after  the  morning  visit  to  his  mother,  which 
he  never  on  any  account  omitted,  to  work  at  the 
office  till  six.  The  evening  was  for  his  own 
and  for  his  friends  until  eleven  o'clock,  after 
which  he  usually  worked  at  his  desk  until  1  or 
2  A.M.  Several  years  before,  he  had  had  to 
give  up  his  father's  business  to  attend  to  the 
many  private  trusts  that  sought  him  as  his 
influence  grew  in  the  community.  A  hundred 
public  interests  demanded  his  aid  besides.  He 
helped  to  organize  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art  and  the  Museum  of  Natural  Sciences, 
and  kept  a  directing  hand  upon  them  up  to  his 
death.  When  mismanagement  of  the  Ameri- 
can department  at  the  Vienna  Exhibition 
caused  scandal  and  the  retirement  of  the  direc- 
tors, it  was  Mr.  Roosevelt  who  straightened  out 
things.  Were  funds  to  be  raised  for  a  charity, 
he  was  ever  first  in  demand.  His  champion- 

[446] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

ship  of  any  cause  was  proof  enough  that  it  was 
good.  His  sunny  temper  won  everybody  over. 
"  I  never  saw  him  come  into  my  office,"  said  a 
friend  about  him,  "  but  I  instinctively  took 
down  my  check-book."  He  surrendered  at 
sight. 

The  news  of  his  death,  on  February  9,  1878, 
came  home  to  thousands  with  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal bereavement.  Though  he  was  but  a 
private  citizen,  flags  flew  at  half-mast  all  over 
the  city.  Rich  and  poor  followed  him  to  the 
grave,  and  the  children  whose  friend  he  had 
been  wept  over  him.  In  the  reports  of  the 
meetings  held  in  his  memory  one  catches  the 
echo  of  a  nature  rarely  blending  sweetness  with 
strength.  They  speak  of  his  stanch  integrity 
and  devotion  to  principle;  his  unhesitating 
denunciation  of  wrong  in  every  form;  his 
chivalric  championship  of  the  weak  and  op- 
pressed wherever  found;  his  scorn  of  mean- 
ness; his  generosity  that  knew  no  limit  of 
sacrifice ;  his  truth  and  tenderness ;  his  careful, 
sound  judgment;  his  unselfishness,  and  his 
bright,  sunny  nature  that  won  all  hearts.  The 
Union  League  Club  resolved  "  that  his  life  was 
a  stirring  summons  to  the  men  of  wealth,  of! 

[447] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

culture,  and  of  leisure  in  the  community,  to  a 
more  active  participation  in  public  affairs  "  as 
a  means  of  saving  the  State. 

Four  years  later  his  son  Theodore  was 
elected  to  the  Assembly,  and  entered  upon  the 
career  of  public  service  which,  by  his  exercise 
of  the  qualities  that  made  his  father  beloved, 
set  him  in  the  Governor's  Chair  of  his  State. 
Other  monument  the  people  have  never  built  to 
the  memory  of  the  first  Theodore ;  but  I  fancy 
that  they  could  have  chosen  none  that  would 
have  pleased  him  more;  and  I  am  quite  sure 
that  he  is  here  to  see  it. 

This  is  the  story,  not  of  a  people  in  its  age- 
long struggle  for  righteousness,  but  of  a  single 
citizen  who  died  before  he  had  attained  to  his 
forty-eighth  year,  and  it  is  the  material  out  of 
which  real  civic  greatness  is  made.  I  know  of 
none  in  all  the  world  that  lasts  better,  prophets 
of  evil  and  pessimists  generally  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding.  I  have  been  at  some  pains 
to  tell  it  to  this  generation,  out  of  charity  to 
the  prophets  aforesaid.  Let  them  compare 
now  the  son's  life  as  they  know  it,  as  we  all 
know  it,  with  the  father's,  point  for  point,  deed 
for  deed,  and  tell  us  what  they  think  of  it. 

[448] 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT'S  FATHER 

The  truth,  mind ;  for  that,  with  knowledge  of 
what  has  been,  is,  after  all,  the  proper  basis 
for  prophecy  as  to  what  is  to  be.  Or  else  let 
them  come  squarely  out  and  declare  that  they 
have  lived  in  vain,  that  ours  is  a  worse  country, 
every  way,  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago,  and 
not  fit  for  a  decent  man  to  live  in.  That  is  the 
alternative,  as  they  will  see — unless,  indeed, 
they  prefer  to  do  as  the  squirrel  does,  just  sit 
and  scold. 


[449] 


THE  ROOSEVELT  CHRONOLOGY 


THE  ROOSEVELT  CHRONOLOGY 

(FROM  CONGRESSIONAL,  DIRECTORY) 

Born  in  New  York  City  -  -  Oct.  27,  1858 
Entered  Harvard  College  -  -  -  -  1876 
Graduated  from  Harvard  -  -  -  -  1880 
Studied  law. 

Elected  to  New  York  Legislature  -  -  1881 
Re-elected  to  New  York  Legislature  -  1882 
Re-elected  to  New  York  Legislature  -  1883 
Delegate  to  State  Convention  -  -  -  1884 
Delegate  to  National  Convention  -  -  1884 
Ranching  in  West  -----  1884-1886 
Nominated  for  Mayor  of  New  York  -  1886 
Appointed  member  of  United  States  Civil 

Service  Commission      -     -     -      May,  1889 
Appointed  President  New  York  Police 

Board May,  1895 

Appointed    Assistant    Secretary    of    the 

Navy, April,   1897 

[4S3] 


THE  ROOSEVELT  CHRONOLOGY 

{  Appointed  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  First 
)      Volunteer  Cavalry      -     -     -     May  6,  1898 
*j    Promoted  to  Colonel  of  First  Volunteer 

/        Cavalry July  11, 1898 

I    Mustered  out  with  Regiment  at  Montauk 

Point September,  1898 

Elected  Governor  of  New  York, 

November,  1898 
Unanimously  nominated  Vice-President, 

June,  1900 

Elected  Vice-President  -     -     November,  1900 
Succeeded  to  Presidency  -     -     Sept.  14,  1901 


[454] 


BOOKS   BY 
THEODORE    ROOSEVELT 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

COMPILED  FROM  THE  CATALOGUE  OF 
THE   CONGRESSIONAL   LIBRARY 

In  each  case  the  date  given  is  of  the  first  published  edition.   For 
complete  editions  see  at  the  end  of  this  bibliography. 


THE  NAVAL  OPERATIONS  or  THE  WAR 
BETWEEN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  THE 
UNITED  STATES— 1812-1815.  G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  New  York.  1  Vol.  .  1882 

HUNTING  TRIPS  OF  A  RANCHMAN. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York. 
1  Vol 1886 

LIFE  OF  THOMAS  HART  BENTON.  (Vol. 
14  of  American  Statesmen  Series.) 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston. 
Cloth  1887 


LIFE  OF  GOUVERNEUR  MORRIS.  (Ameri- 
can Statesmen  Series.)  Houghton, 
Mifflin  &  Co.,  Boston 1888 

RANCH  LIFE  AND  HUNTING  TRAIL. 
The  Century  Co.,  New  York  .  .  .  1888 

[457] 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ESSAYS  ON  PRACTICAL  POLITICS.  (Ques- 
tions of  the  Day  Series.)  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons,  New  York.  (Reprinted  in 
"American  Ideals.") 1888 

NEW  YORK  CITY:   A  HISTORY.   Long- 
mans, Green  &  Co.,  New  York     .     .  1891 
(With  postscript  to  date.)     ....  1895 

AMERICAN  BIG-GAME  HUNTING.  (Book 
of  the  Boone  and  Crockett  Club.)  For- 
est and  Stream  Publishing  Company, 
New  York 1893 

LIBER  SCRIPTORTJM.  A  shot  at  a  bull-elk; 
Roosevelt;  pp.  484-487 1893 

THE  WILDERNESS  HUNTER.  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons,  New  York 1893 

HERO  TALES  FROM  AMERICAN  HISTORY. 
H.  C.  Lodge  and  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
The  Century  Co.,  New  York  .  .  .  1895 

HUNTING  IN  MANY  LANDS.  (The  book 
of  the  Boone  and  Crockett  Club.) 
Foitest  and  Stream  Publishing  Com- 
pany, New  York 1895 

WINNING  OF  THE  WEST.  G.  P.  Put- 
nam's Sons,  New  York.  4  Vols.  .  1896 

[458] 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

AMERICAN  IDEALS,  AND  OTHER  ESSAYS. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York    .     .  1897 

CONTENTS VOLUME  I 

Biographical  Sketch,  by  Gen. 
F.  V.  Greene. 

American  Ideals.     Forum  .     .     .  1895 

True  Americanism.    Forum     .     .  1894 

The  Manly  Virtues  and  Practical 

Politics.    Forum 1894 

The  College  Graduate  and  Public 

Life.     Atlantic 1894 

Phases  of  State  Legislation.  Cen- 
tury    1885  • 

Machine  Politics  in  New  York 

City.     Century 1886 

The  Vice-Presidency  and  the  Cam- 
paign of  '96.  Review  of  Re- 
views   1896 

CONTENTS VOLUME    H 

Six  Years  of  Civil  Service  Re- 
form. Scribner's 1895 

Administering  the  New  York  Po- 
lice Force.  Atlantic  Monthly  .  189T 

How   Not   to   Help   Our   Poorer 

Brother.    Review  of  Reviews     .  1897 

The  Monroe  Doctrine.     Bachelor 

of  Arts 1896 

Washington's  Forgotten  Maxim. 
Address,  Naval  War  College, 
June 1897 

National  Life  and  Character.   Se- 

wanee    Review 1894 

[459] 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

AMERICAN  IDEALS,  AND  OTHER  ESSAYS 

CONTINUED 

Social  Evolution.  North  American 

Review 1895 

The  Law  of  Civilization  and  De- 
cay. Forum 1897 

TRAIL  AND  CAMP-FIRE.  (The  book  of 
the  Boone  and  Crockett  Club.)  For- 
est and  Stream  Publishing  Company, 
New  York 1897 

HISTORY  OF  THE  ROYAL  NAVY  OF  ENG- 
LAND. (6  vols.)  From  the  earliest 
times  to  the  present  day.  By  W.  L. 
Clowes,  assisted  by  Sir  C.  Markham, 
Captain  A.  T.  Mahan,  H.  W.  Wilson, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  L.  C.  Langton 
and  others.  (Mr.  Roosevelt  wrote  part 
of  the  sixth  volume  on  the  War  of 
1812.)  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  Boston  .  1898 

BIG  GAME  HUNTING  IN  THE  ROCKIES 

AND  ON  THE  GREAT  PLAINS.  (Includ- 
ing "  Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman  " 
and  "  The  Wilderness  Hunter.")  G. 
P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York  .  .1899 

ROUGH  RIDERS.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons, 
New  York 1899 

EPISODES  FROM  THE  "WINNING  OF  THE 
WEST."  (The  Knickerbocker  Litera- 
ture Series.)  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons, 
New  York 1900 

[460] 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

THE   STRENUOUS  LIFE.    The   Century 
Co.,  New  York.     225  pp 1900 

CONTENTS 

The  Strenuous  Life.  Speech. 
Hamilton  Club,  Chicago,  April 
10 1899 

Expansion  and  Peace.  Independ- 
ent, Dec.  21 1899 

Latitude  and  Longitude  of  Re- 
form. Century,  June  .  .  .  1900 

Fellow  Feeling  a  Political  Factor. 

Century,  Jan 1900 

Civic  Helpfulness.  Century, 
Oct 1900 

Character  and  Success.    Outlook, 

March  31 1900 

Eighth  and  Ninth  Command- 
ments in  Politics.  Outlook, 
May  12 1900 

The  Best  and  the  Good.  Church- 
man, March  17 1900 

Promise  and  Performance.  Out- 
look, July  28 1900 

The  American  Boy.    St.  Nicholas, 

May 1900 

Military    Preparedness    and    Un- 

preparedness.   Century,  Nov.    .  1899 

Admiral  Dewey.  McClure's,  Oct.      1899 

Grant.  Speech  at  Galena,  HI., 
April  27 1900 

The     Two     Americas.      Buffalo, 

N.  Y.,  May  20 1901 

Manhood   and    Statehood.     Colo- 
rado  Springs,  August  2     .     .   1901 
[461] 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

THE  STRENUOUS  LIFE 

CONTINUED 

Brotherhood  and  the  Heroic  Vir- 
tues.  Vermont,  Sept.  5    ...   1901 

National  Duties.  Minnesota,  Sept. 
2 1901 

Christian  Citizenship.     New  York 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Dec.  30     ...  1900 

Labor  Question.     Chicago,  Sept. 

3 1900 

(Character  and  Success  is  issued  by  the  Phil- 
adelphia Institution  for  the  Blind  in  raised 
letters.) 

CAMERA  SHOTS  AT  BIG  GAME.  By  Allen 
Grant  Wallihan;  introduction  by 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  Doubleday,  Page 
&  Co.,  New  York 1901 

OLIVER  CROMWELL.  Charles  Scrib- 
ner's  Sons,  New  York.  (Also  in 
French.) 1901 

LA  VIE  INTENSE,  &c.  (19  essays.)  E. 
Flammarion,  Paris 1902 

THE  DEER  FAMILY.  By  T.  Roosevelt, 
T.  S.  Van  Dyke,  D.  G.  Elliot  and 
A.  J.  Stone.  ( The  Deer  and  Antelope 
of  North  America,  by  Mr.  Roosevelt. ) 
Macmillan  &  Co.,  New  York  .  .  .  1902 

THE  PHILIPPINES:  THE  FIRST  CIVIL 
GOVERNOR.  By  Theodore  Roosevelt. 
CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  IN  THE  PHILIP- 
PINES. By  William  H.  Taft.  The 
Outlook  Company,  New  York  .  .  .  1902 

[462] 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

MAXIMS  OF  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT.  The 
Madison  Book  Co.,  Chicago  .  .  .  1903 

THE  WOMAN  WHO  TOILS.  By  Mrs.  Van 
Vorst  and  Marie  Van  Vorst.  (Ex- 
perience of  two  ladies  as  factory 
girls.)  Introduction  by  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  in  which  occurs  the  famous 
Race  Suicide  phrase.  Doubleday, 
Page  &  Co.,  New  York 1903 

COMPLETE    EDITIONS 

KNICKERBOCKER  PRESS  EDI- 
TION. G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New 
York.  14  Volumes.  American  Ideals ; 
Administration — Civil  Service ;  The 
Wilderness  Hunter;  Hunting  the 
Grizzly;  Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranch- 
man; Hunting  Trips  on  the  Prairies; 
and  in  the  Mountains.  Winning  of 
the  West  (6  Vols.).  Naval  War  of 
1812  (2  Vols.)  . 1903 

SAGAMORE    EDITION.      G.    P. 

PUTNAM'S  SONS.  15  Volumes.  (Same 
as  Knickerbocker  Edition,  but  includ- 
ing "  The  Rough  Riders.")  ....  1900 

STANDARD  LIBRARY  EDI- 
TION. G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS. 
(Same  volumes  as  Sagamore  Edi- 
tion.)   1900 

[463] 


BOOKS  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

UNIFORM  EDITION.     GEBBIE  & 
Co.,  Philadelphia.    20  Volumes. 

1902  and  1903 

(Same  as  Knickerbocker  Press  Edi- 
tion, but  including  besides:  Rough 
Riders,  2  vols.;  New  York:  A  His- 
tory; Life  of  Thomas  Benton;  Life  of 
Gouverneur  Morris;  Hero  Tales  from 
American  History.) 


[464] 


INDEX 


Advocate,  Harvard  .    .    . 

Aldermen,  Board  of  — 
power  over  Mayor's  ap- 
pointments   

"Allotment  Commissions" 
bill 437, 

Anthracite  Coal  Strike, 
President's  interference 
with  .  .  373,  375,  376, 

Arizona  mining  troubles — 

Roosevelt's  interference 

372, 

Assistant  Sec'y  of  the 
Navy  .  .  64,  157,  161, 

Astor,  William  Waldorf 
47,  48, 

Bad  Lands  ....     73, 

"  Bath-house  John "  of 
Chicago 

"  Battle  with  the  Slum  "   . 

Bell,   Sherman     .     .     203, 

Bellevue  Hospital  and 
Sunday  closing  .  .  . 

Bill  on  wearing  of  gowns 
by  attorneys  in  Supreme 
Court — Roosevelt's  dis- 
approval   

Bismarck 

Blaine's  nomination  .     .     . 

Bliss,  George 


25       Bourke,  Policeman  .    .     .238 

Brace,   Mr 444 

Bribery — Roosevelt    quot- 

63          ed 426 

Bronson,  Theodore  B.       .  438 

438       Brown,  Chaplain   184,  185,  187 

Bullard,  Major    ....     49 

Bulloch,  Irwin  S.     ...     12 

379  Byrnes,  the  "  Big  Chief  "  .  130 

Camp  Wikoff 179 

380  Cameron,  Simon  ....  439 
Candidate  for  legislature    47 

162      Candidate  for  mayoralty, 

75,  96,     99 

52      Cary,  Edward 108 

74      Central  Association  of  Li- 
quor Dealers     .    .    .    .136 
276       Central   Labor    Union   of 
102          the  District  of  Columbia  382 
204   -  Chamber     of     Commerce 
speech — the        "  homely 
139          virtues "    .     .     268,  414,  415 
Charities,    United    Board 

of 441 

Charity— Roosevelt    quot- 

428          ed 426 

290       Charter  Revision  Commit- 

68          tee 141 

62      Children's  Aid  Society  11,  347 

[465] 


INDEX 


Christian       Citizenship  — 

Roosevelt  quoted  .    .    .  420 
Christian  Endeavorers  .     .  134 
Church    Federation,    New 
York   State  Conference 
on — Roosevelt's     speech 

at 426 

Church  membership      .    .    37 
City  Club,  Speech  to,  by 

Roosevelt 425 

Civil  Service  Commissioner 
64,  104,  108,  115, 
119,  121,  125,  209,  293 
Civil   Service  reform 
62,    104,    106,    108,   116, 

119,  123,  222,  223,  443 
Clarendon       Hall — Labor 
men's      meeting      with 
Roosevelt      .     .     .     153,  382 
Classmates'  estimates    36,    67 

Clay,    Henry 229 

Cleveland,  Grover 

91,  92,  93,  121,  122,  123,  227 
Coal  strike  commission 

103,  377,  378,  381,  386 
Collector  of  the  Port — re- 
jection of  Roosevelt  the 
elder  by   Senate  ...  443 
Color  question  .     119,  120, 

369,  370 
Colored  soldier  in  Spanish 

war  ....     193,  194,  195 
Columbian  plot,  the  .     .     .  385 
Committee  of  Nine  .     .     .441 
Committee  of  One   Hun- 
dred       100 

Committee   to   investigate 

city  departments  .  61,  129 
Conference  with  labor 

leaders  as  governor  .  .214 
Congress  and  corporations  387 
Congressional  Library  .  .  116 
Conkling,  Roscoe  .  .  .  443 
Convention  of  1884  ...  66 
Cooper  Institute  .  .  .  .240 
Cooper,  J.  Fenimore  .  18,  19 
Corbin,  Adjutant-General 

'  270,  271,  272,  273 


Corporations — President's 

policy  toward      .      386,  387 
Corporations  —  Roosevelt 

quoted 425 

Cortelyou,  Secretary     .     .  245 

Cowl  s,  Mrs 8 

Crane,  Governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts       375 

Croker,  Richard  .  .  136,  204 
Cuba's  freedom  ....  383 
Cuban  conditions  .  159,  160 
Curtis,  George  William- 
estimate  of  Roosevelt  68,  69 
Custom  House,  N.  Y. — 

political  blackmail  in      .  105 
Cutting,  R.  Fulton  .     .     .101 
Cynicism  —  Roosevelt 
quoted 423 

Decatur  at  Tripoli  .     .     .297 
Department  of  Commerce 

and  Labor 387 

"Deverys" 147 

Dewey,  Admiral 

162,  164,  165,  297 
Dewey,  the  engineer  .  .  205 
Divver,  Paddy  .  .  275,  276 
Dodge,  William  E  .  .  .438 

Draft  riots 26 

,  Dreyfus,  Captain      .    .    .401 
Duane      Street      lodging 
house 358 

Electoral  Commission  .     .     25 
Elevated  railroad  ring  .     .     53 
Eliot,   President  .     .     .     .260 
Elizabethan  poetry — Fond- 
ness for 27 

Ellis     Island,    President's 

visit  to 276 

EmperorWilliam  272,  273,  294 
England,  relations  with     .  294 
'jExpansion    —    Roosevelt 

quoted 418 

-Expediency  —  Roosevelt 

'    quoted 423 

Facsimile  of  a  letter  from 
Roosevelt 114 


[466] 


INDEX 


Factory       Department  — 
Roosevelt's       judgment 
on  disputes  with  .     .     .  215 
Factory       law  —  enforce- 
ment  of 216 

Farragut     ....     161,  297 

Federal  Club 65 

"Federalist"  read  ...    32 
Fellowship    —    Roosevelt 

quoted 426 

Ferguson,  Lieutenant  .     .  186 
Fight    against    corruption 

in  the  Legislature  .    54,    57 
Financial    policy — Roose- 
velt's     386,  389 

First  literary  work  ...     39 
First  Presidential  message  106 


a*  jrcuivcj   icubumio    WJ.LII  • 

Franchise  tax  .     220,  221 

*w 

235 

"  Four-eyed  tenderfoot  " 

83 

Garfield,  President  .    47 

397 

Garlin,  Hamlin     .     .     . 

145 

George,  Henry      .     .     . 

100 

Germany,  relations  with 

294 

Germany,  study  in  .     . 

40 

Gilder,  R.  W.      ... 

300 

Gompers,  Samuel      .    . 

382 

Governor    ....      173 

207 

Grace   Mayor 

49 

Grant                               161 

332 

Gray,  Judge    .... 

377 

Greeley,  Horace  .    .     . 

.  109 

Hague  Court  of  Arbitra- 
tion   384 

"  Halifax,  John  "...  445 
Hamilton,  Alexander  .  .  435 
Hamilton  Club  speech, 

Chicago 420 

Handwriting  of  Roosevelt  114 
Hanna,  Senator  .  .  .  .161 
Hannigan,  Policeman — 

pardon  of     ...     225,  226 
"  Haroun-al-Roosevelt  "    .  144 
Harrison,  Mayor,  of  Chi- 
cago       277 

Harrison,  President      .    .  107 


Harvard  .  .  .22,  25,  28,  43 
Hayes,  Mrs. — story  of 

sideboard   presented   to 

286,  287 

Hayes,  President  .  443,  444 
Health  Commissioner 

61,  144,  151,  293 
Heffner,  Private  ....  188 
Hess,  "  Jake  "  .  .  49,  51,  52 
Hewitt,  Abram  S.  ...  100 

Hill,   David   B 136 

History  of  New  York  .  .  96 
"  Honest  Money  "...  303 
Hospital  founded  by 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  the 

President's    father    .    .  441 
"How    the    Other    Half 

Lives" 61,  139 

Immigration  —  Roosevelt 
quoted 426 

Inaugural  address  as  Gov- 
ernor   227 

International  Brotherhood 
of  Bookbinders  .  .  .381 

"  Isolated  Peak,  The," 

58,  59,  60,  67 

Issbell,  the  Indian    .    .    .188 

Jackson,  Andrew  .  181,  333 
Jacob  A.  Riis  House  .  .  356 
James'  history  ....  39 
Jeiferson,  the  America  of  284 
Josiah  the  Badger  .  .  .  318 

King  Christian's  cross  .    .  282 
King's  Mountain  ....  181 
Kishineff  petition     .    .    .125 
Kishineif     petition     tele- 
graphed to  St.  Peters- 
burg      291 

Knox,  Attorney-'  •  >eral 

366,  397 

Labor  Day  Speech  at  Sy- 
racuse .  103,  256,  383,  428 

Labor  men  and  capital- 
ists —  Roosevelt's  atti- 
tude toward  .  371,373,388 


[467] 


INDEX 


i^abor  laws  conferred  over  214 
LaCrosse,  Wis.— speech  at  427 
Lambert,  Dr.  Alexander  .  145 
Las  Guasimas 

174,  181,  188,  191,  192,  383 
Leatherstocking  Tales  .  .  18 
Lexow  Committee  .  .  .130 
Life-rules  of  Roosevelt 

403,  406,  407,  408 
Lincoln 

161,    211,    286,    296, 

320,  332,  438,  439 

Lincoln,  Roosevelt  quoted 

284,  285 

Line  and  Engineer  Corps 
— contention  in  Navy 

163,  164 

Literary  work,  39,  73,  116,  413 
Lodge,  Senator  .  .  159,  326 
Loeb,  Secretary  248,  249,  287 
London  "  Times  "  quoted 

377,  378 

Long,  Secretary  .    .     .    .161 
Loomis — Assistant    Secre- 
tary of  State    ....  385 
Loyal  Publication  Society  436 
Low,  Mayor     .     .     .     374,  391 
Lynching — R  o  o  s  e  v  e  1 1 
quoted 427 

Madison  Street  Theater — 
address 109 

"Making  of  an  American, 
The "      .     134,  141,  151,  224 

Manila 162 

Martin,    Police    Commis- 
sioner    136 

Maxims  of  Roosevelt 

403,  406,  407,  408 

McCalla.  C    •  liin      .     .     .385 

McKinley,  \   uliam 

76,    121,    1.38,   236,    243, 
245,  246,  249,  348,  365, 

366,  372,  429 

McNaughton,  James    244,  246 

Merit    system    in     Police 
Department      .    .     146,  147 


Methodist  ministers  .  .  134 
Metropolitan  Museum  of 

Art 446 

"  Mike "  Callahan's  sa- 
loon   238 

Militia  joined 26 

Miller  Case  .    .    380,  381,  382 

Mitchell,  Ed 50 

Mitchell,  John  .  379,  380,  382 
Monroe  Doctrine  ....  159 
Montauk  Point  .  .  .  .173 
Montgomery  (Alabama) 

Times — quoted  .  .  .369 
Moody,  Secretary  of  the 

Navy— quoted  .  .  375,  376 
Moore,  Governor  ....  435 
Mores,  Marquis  de  .  81,  82 
Mount  Marcy  .  .  .  243,  244 
Mulberry  Street 

129,   130,   136,  138,  147, 
148,  150,  151,  157,  158, 

162,  405 

"  Murphys  " 147 

Murray,  "Joe"  49,50,51,    52 
Museum  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences      446 

Napoleon     ....     190,  297 

National  duties— Roose- 
velt quoted 418 

"  Naval  War  of  1812  "  .     .    39 

Negro  problem — Roosevelt 
on  the  .  .  119,  120,  369,  370 

"  New  Century,  The " — 
Roosevelt  quoted  ...  429 

New  York  Hospital  Cor- 
poration   435 

Nominated  for  Collector 
of  the  Port  of  New 
York 62 

Nomination  for  vice-pres- 
idency .  .  33,  233,  234,  235 

Northern    Securities  suits  302 

Olympia  ordered  home      .  165 

Panama  Canal  ....  384 
Panama  Canal  Company  .  385 
Parkhurst,  Dr.  ...  61,  130 


[468] 


INDEX 

PAGB  "~                                                                                       PAGB 

Payn,  Louis  F.      .     .    .      222  Republican  National  Con- 

"  Personnel  Bill "...  164  vention  of  1904 — resolu- 

Place,  Mrs. — execution  of  tion    instructing     dele- 

223,  225,  428  gates  to 410 

Platt    ....    213,  214,  222  "  Review    of    Reviews  "— 

Police  Blackmail  quoted 210 

130,  135,  136,  137,  139  Riis,    Mrs.— the    author's 

Police  Commissioner  mother 336 

13,  42,  64,  134, 143,  144,  Riis,  Mrs.  Jacob  A.      261,  281 

292,  347,  354,  358,  360,  361       Riis,  Vivi 264 

Police  Courts  and  Sunday  Robinson  boys — the  Presi- 

closing 139  dent's  nephews  ....  244 

Police  Department  .    .    .129  Roosevelt,  Archie — 

Police-station    lodging  85,  315,   319,   321,   322, 

houses       ....     141,  142  325,  326,  331,  333 

Pollock,  the  Pawnee     .     .  187  Roosevelt,  Cornelius     .     .  435 

"  Pork  Club  " 29  "  Roosevelt   Doctrine, 

"  Practical    Politics "    de-  .     The " 415 

fined 212  Roosevelt,  Elliott     ...    34 

Practical  politics — Roose-  Roosevelt — estimates  of 

velt  quoted 420  69,  228,  268,  284,  296,  337, 

Presidency  in  1904  .     396,  410  338,  409,  410,  414 

President     of     Columbia  Roosevelt,  Ethel  .    .    85,  333 

College — quoted     ...  237  Roosevelt  family  motto    .  314 

President's   m  e  s  s  a  g  e—  Roosevelt,  Isaac  ....  435 

quoted    .     .     .  106,  387,  425  Roosevelt,  Jacob  ....  435 

Prison    Reform    Associa-  Roosevelt,  Kermit 

tion       36  16,  211,  315,  355,  356 

Procter,  John  R.  Roosevelt,  Mrs. 

112,  113,  120,  122,  301  89,    166,    226,   243,   244, 

Protective     War     Claims  312,  327,  328,  329,  330, 

Association 440  334,  336,  355,  356,  357 

Publicity    of    Trust    Ac-  Roosevelt,  Mrs.— the  Pres- 

counts 302  ident's  mother  .     10,  11,    12 

Roosevelt  quoted 

"  Race  Suicide "  .     .     .     .353  14,  21,  26,  34,  35,  36,  38, 

Railroad  riots 25  40,  41,  43,  48,  49,  57,  58, 

Ralph,  Julian  ...     13,     14  59,  67,  74,  76,  77,  80,  86, 

"Ranch     Life     and     the  87,   88,   90,    93,   94,   95, 

Hunting  Trail"    ...     95  101,  103,   107,  109,  110, 

Reform  League  ....  444  111,  115,  118,  119,  122, 

Reid,  Mayne 15  130,  131,   132,  136,  142, 

Religious 'beliefs  305,  306,  307  149,  153,   158,  162,  166, 

Republican  Association     .    48  170,   171,   172,  174,  180, 

Republican  Convention  at  186,  190,   199,  200,  205, 

Cincinnati 444  206,  210,  212,  214,  215, 

Republican  Convention  of  219,  220,  221,  224,  226, 

1900 33,  429  227,  287,  256,  258,  265, 

[469] 


INDEX 


266,  267,  268,  271,  272, 
284,  285,  287,  289,  290, 
297,  300,  301,  302,  305, 
306,  307,  313,  335,  336, 
345,  354,  366,  370,  373, 
375,  381,  382,  383,  387, 

400,  403,  415-430 
Roosevelt,    Theodore,   Ju- 
nior ....     10,   244,  325 
Roosevelt,    Theodore — the 
President's  father 
10,  11,  12,  13,  36,  60,  62, 
327,  347,  352,  434,  435, 
436,  437,  438,  439,  440, 
441,  443,  444,  445,  446, 

447,  448 

Roosevelt's  Uncles  ...  12 
Root,  Secretary  295,  334,  397 

quoted 296 

Rose — the          Roosevelt's 

maid 331,  332 

Rough  Riders 
9,  64,  88,  167,  168,  169, 
170,  171,  174,  180,  181, 
182,  183,  187,  188,  189, 
190,  191,  193,  194,  195, 
196,  197,  198,  199,  282, 

335,  338,  350 

"Round  Robin"  .  .  36,  196 
Rowland,  the  cow-puncher  188 
"Royal  Navy,  The"  .  .  40 

Sagamore  Hill  .  89,  313,  317 
St.  Hilda  Circle  .  .  327,  330 
San  Juan  Hill 

28,  167,  168,  169,  181, 

187,  192,  197,  383 
Sanitary    Commission    in 

the  Civil  War  ....  436 
Santiago    ...    35,  189,  191 

Satterie,  Miss 348 

Saturday  Evening  Post    .     54 

Schurz,  Carl 369 

Secret  Service  man  and  a 

crank 282,  283 

Shakespeare  and  the  cow- 
boys       95 

Shaw,  Dr.  Albert .  33,  210,  284 


Sherman,  General  .  .  .161 
Ship-building  trust  .  .  .387 
"  Six  Years'  War"  .  119,  125 
Small  Parks  Committee  .  134 
Soldiers'  Employment  Bu- 
reau   441 

Southwestern  miners'  con- 
vention       380 

Speaker,  Roosevelt  as  a 

413,  414 

Standard  Oil  Company     .  388 
Stanton,      Secretary      of 

War 439 

State  Charities'  Aid  Asso- 
ciation        441 

Sullivan  Street  Industrial 

School      ....     347,  349 
Sunday  saloon-closing  law 

130,  138,  139,  140,  293 
Street   Cleaning   Commis- 
sionership      offered     to 

Roosevelt 153 

Spanish  misrule  in  Cuba   .  159 
Speaker    in    the    Legisla- 
ture       58 

State    Bar    Asspciation — 

speech  in  1899  ....  258 
State  Board  of  Charities  .  441 
"  Strenuous  Life,  The  "  .  420 
Strong,  Mayor  ...  63,  132 
Success — Roosevelt  quot- 
ed   427 

Sunday-school  teacher  .     .    37 
Sweatshops    inspected    by 
the  Governor  .    .    217,  218 

Taft— governor   .     .    397,  400 
Tammany 

100,   132,  135,  1ST,   143, 

147,  213,  301,  398 
Taylor,  "  Buck  "  .     .     .     .  207 
"  Tear  in  the  Clouds  "  .     .244 
Tenement  House  Commis- 
sion Bill 230 

Tenement  labor    ....    60 
Tenement     labor     investi- 
gated .     .    60,  217,  218,  219 
Texas  Rangers 


.  181 


[470J 


INDEX 


Thanksgiving  dinner  sent 
to  the  Army  of  the  Po- 
tomac   440 

Thucydides 33 

Tientsin — conference      of 

captains  at 385 

Tordenskjold,  Peter  .  .  30 
"  True  American  Ideals  "  57 
Trusts — Roosevelt's  atti- 
tude toward  .  .  386,  387 
Turkey— atrocities  in  .  .  296 
Twin  Island  .  356,  358,  361 

Union  League  Club      436,  447 
United    Charities,    Board 

of 441 

Upper  Tahawus  Club  .    .  243 

Van  Amringe,  Dean     .     .     52 
Venezuela  imbroglio     .     .  383 
Vice-presidency  —  nomi- 
nation .     .     33,  233,  234,  235 
Victoria,   Queen   ....  369 
Vienna  Exhibition,  Amer- 
ican Department  .     .     .  446 

"  Wall  Street  News " 
quoted  389 

Wall  Street  view  of 
Roosevelt  367,  387,  389,  390 

Waring,  Colonel  ....  133 

Washington,  Booker  T.    .  369 


Washington,   George  — 

quoted 410 

Washington,  the  America 
of,  contrasted  with  to- 
day   284 

Westbrook,  Judge  ...  54 
Wheeler,  General  .  192,  194 

White  House 332 

Wikoff,  Camp  .  .  179,  196 
"Wilderness  Hunter"  .  75 
Wine  and  Spirit  Gazette 

— quoted 136 

"Winning  of  the  West" 

104,  171 

Wolcott,   Senator— quoted  236 
Women's   Christian   Tem- 
perance Union  ....  287 
Wood,  Leonard 

158,  165,  173,  173,  192,  372 
"Wood's     Weary    Walk- 
ers"       183 

Woodford,  Stewart  L.      .  203 

Yellow  newspapers  .     139,  286 

Young,  General 

270,  272,  273,  274 

Young  Men's  Christian 
Association 444 

Young  Men's  Christian 
Association — speech  in 
New  York  at  .  .  .  .307 

Young,  Valentine     ...    51 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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OCT  2  8  1953 

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